Puneri Paltan’s star player Deepak Niwas Hooda has been officially confirmed as the new captain of the team for season 5 of the Pro Kabaddi League, according to a reliable source from the franchise. Known as the ‘Raiding Machine’, Deepak has been Mr Reliable for Puneri Paltan ever since season 3.
Having been part of the Telugu Titans in the first two seasons, Hooda joined Puneri Paltan in 2016 and played for the Pune-based franchise in the third and fourth seasons.
Not surprisingly, Hooda was the player that Puneri Paltan decided to retain ahead of the upcoming fifth season of the Pro Kabaddi League for a contracted amount of INR 72.60 lakhs. At the player auction of the inaugural season of the PKL back in 2014, Hooda was the recipient of the second highest bid when he was bought by Telugu Titans for INR 12.60 lakhs.
Also read: Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 2017: Tentative schedule for the tournament revealed
Born in 1994, the 23-year-old all-rounder hails from a village called Chamaria in the Rohtak district of Haryana. He has played a total of 57 matches in the PKL over the course of four seasons. He has racked up a total of 391 points, raiding points accounting for 342 alone. He averages six raid points per game and has seven Super 10s to his name.
He currently plays for Air India and was part of the Indian national kabaddi team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad. He was also a gold medalist at the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati.
Puneri Paltan have entrusted great faith in young Deepak to award him the captaincy ahead of experienced stalwarts like Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Sandeep Narwal. The team are certainly expecting a lot from the highly talented all-rounder.
The 2017 edition of the Pro Kabaddi League will commence on July 28. A record 12 teams will compete in the fifth edition as four new teams have joined the fray. As a result, it is all set to overtake other Indian sports leagues as far as geographical representation is concerned.
The four new franchises will be from the states of Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. As a result, fans will be treated to an increased number of matches this season, over 130 of them.
Also read: Puneri Paltan team players for Pro Kabaddi 2017, Season 5
