Pro Kabaddi League | Auction strategy for Zone B teams ft. Bengaluru Bulls, Bengal Warriors

04/07/2019

With the PKL player auctions for the seventh season scheduled to start from tomorrow, the six teams from Zone B will be looking to get their strategies right before battling out against all other sides on the auction table. Let’s take a look at how their strategies can be going into the auctions.

Bengaluru Bulls

Last season:

On the back of some amazing performance by Pawan Sehrawat, the Bulls were crowned the champions in the sixth season of the league after they defeated Gujarat Fortunegiants in a thrilling final.

Retained players:

The coaching duo of Randheer Sehrawat and BC Ramesh decided to retain their skipper Rohit Kumar, star raider Pawan Sehrawat, and defender Ashish Sangwan ahead of the seventh season of the league. They are expected to retain one of their young players under the “New Young Player” category as well which will be released later.

What to expect from 2019 auctions:

The top two raiders from last year and the best defender have already been retained by the team and they will go into the auctions with an eye on some of the good talents. Coach Sehrawat has that skill of finding raw talents and bringing them into the league that he would want to do this time around as well. Kashiling Adake also had a good auction and the team might just use the “Franchise Bid Match” (FBM)card to bring him on board. The team might look forward to some more experience in the defence unit going into the season with defending the title in mind.

Bengal Warriors

Last season:

After finishing at the second position on the Zone B points table with 69 total points, the Kolkata-based franchise was defeated by Dabang Delhi KC in the second eliminator.

Retained players:

The Jagdish Kumble-led team decided to keep right corner defender Baldev Singh and young raider Maninder Singh, who proved to be one of their best players last year, with them for the seventh season.

What to expect from 2019 auctions:

After releasing players like Surjeet Singh and Shrikant Tewtia, Bengal would want to add more experience in their defence and the players like Vishal Mane, Girish Ernak and others will be in the radar of the franchise during the auctions. They already have Maninder Singh as the young raider but might need an experienced player in the department. Monu Goyat, Rishank Devadiga and Nitin Tomar are some of the players who can be tapped for this. They have the FBM card which they might just use for Korean star Jang Kun Lee who has made Kolkata his second home from his very first season at home.

UP Yoddha

Last season:

After a terrible start in the league last year, a late surge by the Rishank Devadiga-side took the team from Uttar Pradesh to the playoffs. However, after two wins in the two eliminators against U Mumba and Dabang Delhi, UP Yoddha lost their qualifier match against Gujarat Fortunegiants and failed to make it to the finals.

Retained players:

In a surprising move by the UP Yoddha camp, they have retained two such players who didn’t have much of an impact in the team’s success last year. Only defenders Amit and Sachin Kumar are the two players who have been retained by the franchise.

What to expect from 2019 auctions:

The team had a good raiding trio of Rishank Devadiga, Prashanth Rai and Shrikant Jadhav but as none of them have been retained for the next season. However, the team had used the FBM card in the last auction as well to bring Devadiga back into the team and can do the same this year. In the defence, they had Jeeva Kumar and Nitesh Kumar at the cover and right corner positions respectively and the same for FBM card applies to the duo as well. However, looking to build a new team, they have options in both the departments to look forward to in the auctions. They will have a lot in their hands to spend with only two youngsters retained from their previous squad.

Patna Pirates

Last season:

After some amazing performance for three years, where they won the leagues, Patna Pirates went close to making it to the playoffs last season. However, it was some amazing show by the neighbouring team of Uttar Pradesh that denied Patna a place in the top three of Zone B. They finished only two points below UP at the fourth position on the points table.

Retained players:

Captain Pardeep Narwal will take to the mat for the Bihar-based franchise in the seventh season as well. Surprisingly, they have also retained three more raiders Jawahar, Vikas Jaglan and Tushar Patil. Young Manjeet, who had a brilliant season 6 with the team, might continue being a part of the squad in the NYP category.

What to expect from 2019 auctions:

With their defensive unit suffering in the most part of the last edition, both Ram Mehar Singh and Pardeep Narwal must have made some good plans to bring in better defenders. Players like Mohit Chhillar, Sandeep Narwal, Ravinder Pahal, Vishal Bhardwaj or a foreign option in the form of Abozar Mighani will be in the minds of the franchise officials as well. They will have the FBM card to be used for Jaideep and Vikas Kale but whether they consider this option remains to be seen.

Telugu Titans

Last season: The team from the Southern part of the country was in the race to the playoffs at the beginning of the season but finally had to finish at the fifth place in the group. They managed 51 points from their 22 games in the league stage and remained behind UP and Patna on the points table.

Retained players:

Surprisingly, the Titans have neither retained Rahul Chaudhari nor Vishal Bhardwaj from their previous year. Chaudhari’s exclusion makes some sense as he was not that effective last season but Bhardwaj, who was instrumental in their defence, has also been kept out. Two Indian youngsters Armaan and Krushna Madane will be in the team along with the Iran players Mohsen Maghsoudlou and Farhad Milaghardan.

What to expect from 2019 auctions:

With Mohsen in the raiding department, the Titans would want a capable Indian player to replace Rahul in the squad for the raids. They had Neelesh Salunke’s services last year and it remains to be seen how far the franchise can go to bring in more strength in the raiding department. They will have to make sure that the corner in the defence is properly guarded as well and might just go for Bhardwaj with the FBM card in the auctions. They will have plenty of options to look at but won’t have a lot in their purse considering their decision to retain four players.

Tamil Thalaivas

Last season:

After starting their previous season with a huge win against Patna Pirates in the inaugural game, Tamil Thalaivas lost their way after that and finished at the bottom-most position in Zone B with only 42 points from 22 matches.

Retained players:

They have gone on to retain their experienced duo of raider Ajay Thakur and all-rounder Manjeet Chhillar for the next season along with Kenyan Victor Onyango Obiero.

What to expect from 2019 auctions:

With the team having experience in both raiding and defensive units, they might just look forward to a complete revamp of the side ahead of the seventh season with Thakur and Chhillar taking charge of it. They might eye to get someone like Siddharth Desai or maybe Abhishek Singh in the raiding unit. Players like Neelesh Salunke can also be in the radar for the team form Chennai. In the defence, they would want a good right corner and a good pair of cover defenders for the upcoming season. They had struggled at these two positions a lot in the previous year and would definitely want to rectify the lacunae going into their third season in the league.