Pro Kabaddi League 2023: Top 3 Dabang Delhi Raiders to watch out for in PKL 10
Season 8 winners Dabang Delhi K.C struggled a lot last season after getting off to a wonderful start as the defending champions. They were literally unstoppable in the early days of Season 9 and Delhi looked very likely to win PKL again.
However, their pace slowed down as soon as the 2nd phase started with teams like Puneri Paltan, Jaipur Pink Panthers and Bengaluru Bulls leading the chart. Though Delhi still managed to reach the play-offs thanks to a 2-point cushion over Haryana Steelers.
This year Delhi have a new management in place with Rambir Singh Khokhar and Ajay Thakur as Head coach & Assistant coach. During the player auction for Season 10, the Capital outfit mainly focused on buying Defenders but here are the Top 3 Raiders who can shine for Dabang Delhi in PKL 10.
1. Naveen Kumar: Delhi's Superstar Raider and Captain Naveen Kumar aka Naveen Express will not just be Delhi's raider to watch out for but he will be PKL 10's Top 5 raiders to watch out for.
Naveen has been with Dabang Delhi for the last 4 seasons, making his debut in the PKL 6. He scored 172 raid points in his first season, then he experienced his best individual year ever with 301 raid points powered by a success rate of 53% and had an average of 13.9 raid points per match.
In Delhi's PKL winning season, Naveen scored 207 raid points which became 254 raid points in season 9. Delhi did not sign any star raider because they already have one in Naveen and his next objective has to be crossing 250 raid points.
2. Ashu Malik: 21-year-old Haryana born Raider Ashu Malik also started his PKL career with Dabang Delhi K.C in 2021 when the franchise landed its first ever Pro Kabaddi title. He played 22 matches in Season 8, amassing a total of 59 points, 51 of them coming through Raids.
His height and speed is extremely lethal but he will have to work upon his consistency levels and Ajay Thakur's presence in the camp can definitely help him. Last season he scored 141 raid points in 23 matches and that's a drastic improvement in many ways.
Maybe that is the reason why Ashu was welcomed back to Dabang Delhi through FBM card for INR 96.25 Lakhs.
3. Meetu Sharma: Dabang Delhi K.C bought Meetu Sharma for 93 Lakhs during the Auction and since then it was clear that Naveen, Ashu and Meetu will be the 3 main raiders for them.
Having spent his first 2 seasons with Haryana Steelers, Meetu will feature for Delhi in his 3rd Pro kabaddi league campaign. An athletic raider, Meetu scored all of his points through raids - 75 in 16 matches with 3 Super 10s and 1 Super raid.
Lat season, he scored 135 raid points in 20 matches with 5 Super 10s and 3 Super Raids, averaging 6.75 raid points per match. So these are the 3 Raiders we think are going to have a fantastic season.
- 44820 views