Pro Kabaddi League | Auction strategy for Zone A teams ft. Gujarat Fortunegiants, U Mumba

04/07/2019

After a thrilling sixth season, the PKL action will be back soon for its seventh edition in July. Meanwhile, before the commencement of a fresh season, the 12 teams will battle it out to get the best buy on the auction table on April 8 and 9. Let’s check out the strategies for the Zone A teams.

Gujarat Fortunegiants

Last season:

Pretty much like their debut season in 2017, Gujarat Fortunegiants finished at the second position in the last PKL season.

Retained players:

The Manpreet Singh-coached side has retained two of their best players from the previous season – captain Sunil Kumar and star raider Sachin. The Gujarat skipper was phenomenal at the right cover last season as he finished at the fourth place on the table of most tackle points with a total of 76 points. Sachin, who has been a part of the Gujarat raiding unit from the first season, also had a lot to contribute to the team’s success last year.

What to expect in 2019 auctions:

Manpreet and the franchise officials will have other players like Parvesh Bhainswal, Ruturaj Koravi and Sachin Vittala, who had a good season with the team in the previous year, by using Franchise Bid Match (FBM) card. After releasing K Prapanjan and Mahendra Ganesh Rajpoot from their raiding unit, Gujarat might just want an experienced raider in the team and with players like Siddharth Desai, Nitin Tomar and Monu Goyat, Rahul Chaudhari in the auction pool, Manpreet would like to add some experience in the team’s raiding unit. However, the name of the players under the New Young Player (NYP) retention category is yet to be announced by the side.

U Mumba

Last season:

U Mumba had a great season last year as well till the first eliminator where they were defeated by UP Yoddha.

Retained players:

Going into the seventh season they had to change their Iranian coach Gholamreza Mazandarani because of some visa issues and the team has gone with Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan as the new head coach before the fresh auctions. The team from India’s financial capital will continue having the services of their skipper Fazel Atrachali who was a live wire at the left corner defence along with experienced right cover Rajguru Subramaniam and young raider Arjun Deshwal.

What to expect in 2019 auctions:

After deciding to release the surprise package of last season Siddharth Desai into auction pool because of his injury, U Mumba will search for a good raider and like Gujarat, they might just eye some of the players from the same list to make a strong team. They will search for a good cover defender as well as Mumba decided to part ways with the erratic Surender Singh. In the right corner, they had the services of Dharmaraj Cheralathan and the team might use FBM card to get him on board again considering his tons of experience in the sport. However, Cherala’s age might be a concern for the management to decide on him. They will have choices like Sandeep Narwal, Ravinder Pahal and Mohit Chhillar to bring in that experience and make a deadly corner combination with Fazel Atrachali. They would like to use FBM for young raiders Abhishek Singh, and Rohit Baliyan, and all-rounder Vinod Kumar as well.

Dabang Delhi KC

Last season:

The team had made it to the playoffs after finishing third on the Zone A points table. They were defeated by UP Yoddha in the third eliminator and were knocked out of the competition.

Retained players:

After retaining Iranian all-rounder Meraj Sheykh and their last year’s skipper Joginder Narwal, Dabang Delhi coach Krishan Kumar Hooda has made it clear that they will have the services of youngster Naveen Kumar in their raiding unit as well.

What to expect in 2019 auctions:

Delhi lacked some experience in their raiding department and will have to add that to their ranks this year. Youngsters like Chandran Ranjith and Naveen Kumar did well for them out of which they have retained Naveen and released Ranjith. They would also want to fill the two important spots in the defence to replace Ravinder Pahal and Vishal Mane. Pahal was not that effective and they might just want players like Mohit to come in to add that value to the team’s defence and make a great combination alongside skipper Joginder.

Puneri Paltan

Last season:

With 52 points from 22 games, Pune finished season 6 at the fourth place on the Zone A points table.

Retained players:

Puneri Paltan will aim to start from the scratch yet again this year as they have decided not to retain a single player for the upcoming season. The team will have ‘Captain Cool’ Anup Kumar as their coach and they have already changed their logo to bring a change of fortunes even before the auctions.

What to expect in 2019 auctions:

They still have the option of FBM card to get two of their best players like Nitin Tomar and last year’s captain Girish Ernak. They have the option of building an all total new team by excluding all their former players from the previous season and it remains to be seen how cool Anup Kumar can stay with his new coaching role during the auctions. The franchise will have to judiciously use the full amount with them to ensure a proper squad of 18-25 players for the next season.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Last season:

After starting PKL 6 on a terrible note, Jaipur did manage to find their hold back towards the end finishing at the fifth place on Zone A with 43 total points. When Anup Kumar decided to keep himself out of the mat, Deepak Niwas Hooda took up the responsibility of being the captain of the side and was their only top performer in 2018-19.

Retained players:

The all-rounder might be shouldering similar responsibilities in the upcoming season with the team from Rajasthan as they have decided to retain him for the seventh edition of the league. They have also decided to keep left corner defender Sandeep Dhull for the next season.

What to expect in 2019 auctions:

However, Srinivas Reddy would want to shape a proper team for which he will need a good raider and might bid for players like Siddharth Desai or Abhishek Singh to strengthen their attack for next year. Their FBM card might be used to have Mohit Chhillar’s services back as the combination of Mohit and Dhull can do wonders for the Jaipur-based franchise going into the seventh edition.

Haryana Steelers

Last season:

Haryana finished the last season on a terrible note at the bottom-most place on the points table with 42 points.

Retained players:

Haryana Steelers have made a good decision of releasing the highest priced player from last year’s auction Monu Goyat. He was bought by the franchise for 1.51 crore rupees last year but the performance was not up to the mark. He also led the side in the absence of Surender Nada who suffered an injury from the start of the season in 2018. Two promising young performers – raider Vikash Khandola and left-corner defender Kuldeep Singh has been retained.

What to expect in 2019 auctions:

New head coach Rakesh Kumar’s main objective at the auction will be bringing in experience to the side and finding a proper leader as well. It is highly unlikely that the franchise will use the FBM card for the raider because of his poor form last season. Considering the analytical set up of JSW, the owner of the Haryana team, they are expected to take some good calls at the auction table. With only two young players retained, they will have sufficient amount with them to go after different players.