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For five seasons of the Pro Kabaddi League, the Puneri Paltan team has portrayed an image of promise but has somehow failed to make it to the finals, let alone go all the way to win the competition. Now, with yet another season fast approaching, the Paltan will hope to erase their past and go that extra mile to claim the silverware.
The pre-auction tension went off easy on the Paltan as they opted to retain their tested quartet of Girish Ernak, Sandeep Narwal, Rajesh Mondal and More GB. In the auctions, Puneri Paltan went all out to procure the services of ace raider Nitin Tomar for a sum of ₹115 lakh and along with him came in Deepak Kumar Dahiya and Akshay Jadhav, who will add more flavour to the raiding department.
Telugu Titans' star defender from season four, Vinod Kumar was the second costliest buy for Pune at ₹20 lakh and his alliance with the two corners will be vital for Pune along with the services of Ravi Kumar, who has already played for the Paltan.
Here are five reasons why this could well be Pune's season.
#5 Strong buys from the auctions
The Paltan opted to retain four of their best players from last season in the form of Girish Ernak, Sandeep Narwal, Rajesh Mondal and a slightly surprise retention of More GB. However, with the purchase of Nitin Tomar, the Paltan certainly look a stronger bunch.
Rajesh Mondal and Nitin Tomar's partnership along with Deepak Dahiya's nippy raiding could certainly pave way for a strong battle and the varied skill sets in the Pune setup will be of paramount importance when the battle gets underway in the upcoming season.
#4 Steely defense line-up
When the Paltan decided to retain the corner defenders' duo of Girish Maruti Ernak and Sandeep Narwal, the defense unit already had its exoskeleton in place, which just needed some gaps to be filled.
With Manjeet Chhillar gone, left cover defender Vinod Kumar's knack to continually pile the pressure on the raiders could well play to their strength and the re-addition of Ravi Kumar will certainly pose a huge challenge to the opposition raiders.
Young all-rounder Monu, who was in supreme form last season with 30 points from 54 tackles will also be a player to watch out for, whose contribution in the defense department will be of utmost importance.
#3 Core strength advantage for Pune
One of the most important aspects of a sports team is that of bonding to produce the best results over time through understanding and complementing each other. This is one huge box that the Paltan have managed to tick leading into the sixth season as more than half the team either represented Pune last season or have featured for Pune in the past.
Four players apart from youngster Monu were retained from the last season while Nitin Tomar, who played for Pune in the fourth season was bought back. Rinku Narwal, Ravi Kumar, Vikash Khatri, and Akshay Jadhav, all of whom played for Pune in the previous season also return back after being picked from the auction.
#2 The urge to win could fuel their campaign
The fact that the Paltan, although extremely strong on paper have never managed to win a single season could well propel them to put in the extra yards and go all the way. While this is something that would be an ideal goal every season, the Paltan's qualification into the playoffs stage without a single appearance in the finals in the last three seasons would be a record they would want to tweak.
This season again, the Paltan have the team to go all the way but time will tell if the Paltan indeed make it all the way, and if they do, they have only their confidence to thank.
#1 Skipper Girish Ernak's style of play could rub onto the whole team
The Paltan will be going into the season with a new captain in aggressive left corner defender Girish Maruti Ernak, whose terrific style of play and understanding of the internal situations of the game has reaped him rich rewards in the past.
With trusted ally and fellow compatriot Sandeep Narwal guarding the defense set up from the other corner, Girish Ernak's aggression and inputs while playing for the national team, if made use of while at the helm of the Paltan could single-handedly take the team all the way.
