Puneri Paltan

Puneri Paltan is an Indian Professional Kabaddi team which participates in the Pro Kabaddi League. The team is based upon the city of Pune, Maharashtra. Puneri Paltan plays their home matches in a stadium known as Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex which has capacity of around 4400 heads. It also provides a home to the Pune Pistons franchise in the Indian Badminton League (IBL).

Puneri Paltan came into being in the year 2014 with the inception of the Pro Kabaddi League and has been present ever since. The team’s coach is BC Ramesh who is an Arjuna Awardee himself. He was an integral part of the team that won gold at the 2002 Asian Games, 2006 Asian Games and the 2004 Kabaddi World Cup.

Background:

The Puneri Paltan Franchise is owned by the Insurekot Sports which is a very famous brand as far as this field is concerned. They invest heavily in sports activities and this was their first venture in Kabaddi. The Team's tagline is “Khel Badlega” which means that “the game will change”.

The trajectory in the PKL:

Puneri Paltan started their first campaign on a fairly low level, ending the PKL season 1 at the bottom. In the next season too, they were at the rock bottom of the table. The third season was their best in terms of performance until then, finishing 3rd in the group stages and qualifying in style for their first playoffs, before losing in the semifinals. In the fourth season too, they failed to make the finals and ended at the 3rd position.

In the 5th season of the league, the team showed many signs of improvement before losing in the Eliminators. The team stood second in the respective Zone, second only to Gujarat Fortune Giants.

Low points:

While the team has always been famous in the league for the firepower that they bring, their much-exposed defence is also not an aspect that is hidden. “Attacks wins you games but defence wins you titles”. Perhaps, that's the reason they are still in search of their first piece of silverware in the league.

With the arrival of a fresh defence line, the team looks set for the work at hand. The management has worked hard on this aspect and speculated that in great depth.

Team Players

Major Players for the PKL 2019:

The experienced Sandeep Narwal, Girish Maruti Ernak and Nitin Tomar will continue playing for the team this season as well. Apart from such a strong trio, Puneri Paltan also signed Po Surjeet Singh, Manjeet, Pawan Kumar, Emad Sedhagat Nia and Hadi Tajik.

Girish Ernak and Nitin Tomar were bought through FBM for 33 lakhs and 120 lakhs respectively. This team has shown consistent performance throughout the season. With such strong players they surely will be a tough competition.