Pro Kabaddi League Auction 2021|| PKL 8 Auction Preview

Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 8  which was supposed to take place in 2020 had to be cancelled with the Covid-19 virus taking spread all over the world. Not just he PKL but almost every other sporting event which was scheduled for 2020 took the hit and was either postponed or cancelled indefinitely. 2021 saw Kabaddi back to its feet as number of events rolled out in the first 3 months of the marking the comeback of Kabaddi amidst the pandemic. Then came some good news for all the Kabaddi fans as Mashal sports informally announced that the Pro Kabaddi League season 8 will take place this year and they are looking at the July-October window to host he 2nd most watched league in the country. Let us look how the teams fared last season and see what are the potential retentions and FBMs.

Disclaimer Note- All the Player Price mentioned are in Lakhs. The numbers are Kabaddi Adda's estimated price. They are likely to change when the league publishes official information.

Bengal Warriors- Defending Champions!

Bengal Warriors list of players from PKL Season 7

No other better team to start of with, the defending champions- Bengal Warriors who had a dream run in the season 7 of the Pro Kabaddi league as they went on win the title for the first time. Season 7 for Bengal was nothing short of fairy-tail. Season began for them with Maninder Singh in full form, along with him saw Nabbibaksh, Rinku and Baldev took on responsibility and performed at their peak to mark a season to remember for the Warriors. Then tragedy hit Bengal as their lead raider Mani got injured just in woke of the play offs and he was set to miss the whole play offs leg. But Bengal kept their cool and saw others taking responsibility in the likes of Prapanjan, Sukesh Hegde among others fired and helped Bengal to their maiden PKL title. The corners took responsibility where Baldev and RInku were on song through out the league and made the defense look sorted. Rinku scored 64 tackle points through out the season and Baldev did him better by just 1 point to make it 65 points in the season, this made sure Bengal's corner one of the strongest in the season. Maninder was again seen top of his game for his franchise where he scored 212 raid points in 317 raids he went for. Prapanjan had an 100+ raid points season and fired at the right time. They also had other key players performing well when it was important- Jeeva, Sukesh Hegde, Ravinder Kumvat and Mayur Shivtarkar who walked in an injury replacement for the Bengal Warriors.

Looking at the all the dynamics from season 7, the BC Ramesh led unit will look to retain their core which is- Maninder Singh and Nabbibaksh.for sure, they might as well retain Rinku, Jeeva, Ravinder Kumavat, Mayur Shivtarkar (came in as an injury replacement) and use FBM card on Baldev and Prapanjan. This will make sure their core sorted and will look to buy out other positions from the player auctions. 

Likely Retention:

Maninder Singh, Nabbibaksh, Rinku Narwal, Jeeva Kumar, Ravinder Kumavat, Mayur Shivtarkar, Sukesh Hegde

Likely FBMs:

Baldev Singh, Prapanjan

Bengaluru Bulls- Pawan's Bulls- Season 6 Champions

Bengaluru Bulls list of players from PKL Season 7

Bengaluru Bulls one of the most popular teams in the Pro Kabaddi League, who won its first title in season 6 of the league who rode on the hi-flyer Pawan Kumar Sehrawat's form. Pawan Kumar has been riding this team on his shoulder for the last two seasons, in season 6 he got some good support from Rohit Kumar and others in the raiding department, but it was not the case in the last season where Pawan was the lone warrior who ended up as the best raider of the tournament with 359 raid points. Bengaluru Bulls bowed out of the tournament in the semi-final of the tournament to Dabang Delhi. In that game Pawan was again the lone warrior who piled up 18 points but it was not enough as the Bulls fell short by 6 points. That was the story for the Bengaluru Bulls last season where Pawan was the only raider that clicked in all matches and lacked support from Rohit Kumar who had a sorry season. The defense was another aspect that the Bulls did look a little weak last season, Amit Sheoron and Saurabh Nandal had a decent season with 48 and 56 tackle points respectively. Mahender Singh was the best defender for the Bulls last season where scored 62 tackle points. In the upcoming player auctions Bulls will be looking to tighten their defense and also look to buy Raiders who can support the Hi-Flyer Pawan Kumar Sehrawat.

The first player that will be retained by the bulls is a No-Brainer - it has to be Pawan Sehrawat who is in his prime form and looking at his very best in the last concluded 68th Senior Nationals where he led Railways to glory. They will also look to retain the corners- Amit Sheoron and Saurabh Nandal who had a good season with the bulls. They have enough range of interesting players who they can look at as potential retention in the likes of Ankit, Ajay, Raju and Sandeep. It will be interesting to see who all they retain.

Likely Retention:

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, Amit Sheoran, Saurabh Nandal, Banty, Mohit Sehrawat

Likely FBMs:

Mahender Singh, Rohit Kumar 

Dabang Delhi- Season 7 Runners-Up

Dabang Delhi list of players from PKL Season 7

Season 7 runners up had one of the best season in the Pro Kabaddi League but they could not go all the way and fell one step behind the glory. Dabang Delhi had a season to remember as they rode on the performance of their star raider Naveen Goyat. Naveen ended the season with 319 raid points and finished 2nd in the top raiders list. In the season out of the 23 matches played by the franchise, Naveen scored 10+ points in 22 matches- highest by any raider in PKL history. Along with Naveen it was Chandran Ranjit who did good job by scoring 126 raid points in the season and the raiding department looked decent through out the campaign. The defense was the real issue- Only 1 player from Delhi featured in the top 10 best defenders list of PKL 7, Ravinder Pahal scored 59 tackle points to take the 10th place in the list. Corner combo of veteran Joginder Narwal and in form Pahal worked well for Dabang Delhi in the season. But the real issue was finding a good cover combo to make the defense complete, which they would look to do in the up-coming player auctions. 

The first player on the retention list would be Naveen Kumar, without any doubt, he has been such an asset to this franchise in the last season and surely has many years of best Kabaddi left in him. They might also retain the working cover combination of Pahal and Joginder Narwal. Delhi might also look at retaining Sombir as an back up to Pahal. In the FBM category they might look at two of Chandran Ranjit, Vishal Mane and Meraj Sheikh. They can also have a look at players like Vijay Malik as a back up raiders for retention. 

Likely Retention:

Naveen Goyat, Ravinder Pahal, Joginder Narwal, Vijay Malik, Sombir

Likely FBMs:

Vishal Mane, Chandran Ranjit, Meraj Shekyh

Gujarat FortuneGaints- PKL Runners up twice!

Gujarat FortuneGaints list of players from PKL Season 7

Gujarat FortuneGaints had a dream 1st two seasons in the Pro Kabaddi League, making it to the finals of season 5 and 6. But failing to convert their dream run into titles as they went down against Patna Pirates and Bengaluru Bulls in seson 5 and 6 respectively. Seaon 7 for them was their first bad/poor season where they did not make it  to the play-offs. But one must say that, few close games where it could have gone either ways and they would made it to the top 6 but it was not the case as they bowed out of the tournament at the end of league stages. The team revolves around the performances of the cover duos- Captain Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal, both of them had an average season- Parvesh ended the season with 52 tackle points and Sunil with 43 tackle points. The corner was again little bit of a concern as it was donned by multiple players through out the season in the likes of Ankit, Pankaj, More GB and Ruturaj Kovari. The raiding department had Rohit Gulia, Sachin and Sonu, where Rohit had an 100+ raid points season. Sonu also impressed with his performance as scored 76 raid points. Sachin started off the season with lot of expectations but did not match the expectations as he finished the season with 90 raid points. Gujarat FortuneGaints would look to retain their core and look for more players in the upcoming player auctions. 

The retention for the FortuneGaints looks to tricky as they have a lot of players they can look at but the dynamic of the auction will not let them to retain all of them. Rohit Gulia, Sachin, Sunil and Parvesh- all 4 have been an integral part of the Gujarat setup and they would love to retain all of them but practically it wont be possible so they might have to let go a few and try to get them on FBM. Sonu had a great season with the Gaints, which makes him eligible for retention. Sachin has looked a bit scratchy in the season and other tournament outside of PKL which might make the Gujarat think tank to look at him an FBM option in the auction. 

Likely Retention:

Sunil Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Rohit Gulia, Sonu, Ankit/Sumit/ Pankaj

Likely FBMs:

Sachin Tanwar

Haryana Steelers: HeartLand of Kabaddi, play off berth 2/3 times!!! 

Haryana Steelers list of players from PKL Season 7

Haryana Steelers, team coming from the most popular destination for Kabaddi in the country had 1 bad season and 2 seasons where they have made it to the play-offs but did not make it to the final. Haryana in season 7 had a mixed start where they won only 1 of their first 3 games, but later came back well to get back to winning ways and made it to the play offs by qualifying in 4th place in the points table. The success should go to their Raiders as Vikash Kandola was on song and was their lead raider again as he has been in all seasons for them. Vikash ended the season with 202 raid points and 6th best raider in the league. This season he received good support from other two raiders in the likes of Vinay who had a breakthrough season with 128 raid points, Naveen also had a decent season with 66 raid points to make Raiding one of the strong points for the Steelers. The main issue was their defense which did not look in place for the team from Haryana, Best defender in terms of points for the Steelers was Sunil, who scored 54 tackle points in the season, placed 15th in the best tacklers list- sums up their defense worry. Veteran Dharmaraj Cheralathan managed only 42 tackle points in the season but was seen as a good leader of the team and defense unit. Ravi Kumar was another defender who had a decent season with 51 tackle points. Haryana Stleers in the upcoming player auctions will be looking to strengthen their defense unit. Will they go ahead with Anna to lead or look for other defenders will be an interesting question to answer for them.

Without any doubt it will be Vikash Kandola who will be first player to be retained backed up by great performances previously and good form going into PKL 8. 4 of Vinay, Naveen, Sunil, Dharmaraj and Kuldeep can be the other candidates that they can look at retaining. Vikas Kale, Ravi Kumar, Vikram Kandola might the choice for FBMs. They will surely need to invest in the Defense unit to build the team for Season 8 of PKL.

Likely Retention:

Vikash Kandola, Naveen, Vinay, Sunil, Dharmaraj, Kuldeep

Likely FBMs:

Vikas Kale, Ravi Kumar, Kuldeep Singh

Jaipur Pink Panthers: Season 1's Champions of PKL

Jaipur Pink Panthers list of players from PKL Season 7

Jaipur Pink Panthers have had an roller costar ride in the Pro Kabaddi League, after winning the season 1 they have had poor campaigns, making it to play offs only once post their winning season where they finished runners up in season 4. Season 7 was another poor season for the Panthers, the start did promise more but they fell apart as the tournament progressed. Panthers won 4 out their first 4 games promising a successful season ahead but everything fell apart as the team could not capitalize as they finished 7th in the table.  Deepak Niwas Hooda was their best raider by scoring 151 points, but was this enough from him? definitely not, he did not make justice to his price. Defense looked very tight in the first few games, Sandeep Dhull looked in red hot form as he finished the season with  78 tackle points to his name. Raiding department looked a bit clueless as Deepak Narwal and Nilesh Salunke had an average season. It was their defense led by Dhull along with Vishal Lather and Amit Hooda did them some good in the season.

Talking about retention, Sandeep Dhull and Amit Hooda- both corners may be retained along with cover Vishal. Jaipur can also look at retaining Nitin Rawal, Sunil and Ankinkya Pawar to strengthening their raiding department. Deepak Niwas Hooda had a average season compared to his own standards, should ideally be released and then look for FBM option, though it might not be the case.

Likely Retention:

Sandeep Dhull, Amit Hooda, Vishal Lather, Nitin Rawal, Sunil Siddhagavali, Ajinkya Pawar

Likely FBMs:

Deepak Niwas Hooda, Nilesh Salunke, Deepak Narwal

Patna Pirates: Pardeep's Pirates, team with most PKL titles!!

Patna Pirates list of players from PKL season 7

Patna Pirates- the most successful team in the Pro Kabaddi League, winning the tile record 3 times, and they won 3 titles in a row from season 3 to 5. Last two seasons have been worrisome for the Pirates as both times failed to qualify to the play offs. Pardeep Narwal is the heart of this team, he has been the most successful raider in the league but in the last two seasons he has fired but others have not supported him enough. in Season 7 their defense looked very weak as they kept leaking points and failed to revive Pardeep back. In the raiding department it was only Pardeep as there were no support from the raiding as well. Pardeep spent a lot of time in the bench waiting to get revived. Pardeep Narwal scored 317 points to become the 3rd best raider in the tournament. The next best raider for Pirates was Jang Kun lee with 65 points speaks volumes on their dependency on Pardeep. Best defender for the Pirates was Neeeraj Kumar who had a average season with 54 tackle points. Jaideep was the other defender who scored 50 tackle points. Hadi did his bit in the season by scoring 42 raid points. Patna will ideally look to build a full squad around Pardeep Narwal as currently nothing seems to be working for them in the defense as well as raiding. 

Pardeep Narwal will surely be retained by the pirates, other name that can be retained Hadi, who had few decent games in the season but no consistent enough can also be considered for retention. Few other names that can be considered for retention are Vikas Jaglan and Monu. Neeraj Kumar might be a good fit for FBM candidate. All in All Patna need to look at building a squad around Pardeep, giving him enough raiders who can revive him back and defense that does not leak points plus revive him too.

Likely Retention:

Pardeep Narwal, Hadi, Vikas Jaglan, Monu

Likely FBMs:

Neeraj Kumar, Jang Kun Lee

Puneri Paltan: Team with lots of expectations, not delivered yet!!

Puneri Paltan list of players from PKL Season 7

Puneri Paltan, one of the most good looking teams on paper but on mat has not been as good as on paper over the seasons. The Paltans have qualified to the play offs two times in 7 seasons in the PKL. Last two seasons have been tough for Puneri Paltans as they have failed to make it to the play offs. Season 7 again the team looked good on paper but as they started off their campaign things did not look the same, They managed to win only 7 games in the full season. Inconsistency has been one of key reasons why Puneri Paltan have not seen enough success in the PKL. Nitin Tomar was brought again after an injury in season 6, but he failed to live up to his expectations. The best raider for the Paltans was Manjeet with 128 raid points. Puneri Paltan did not have any raider in the top 10 raiders list. Pankaj Mohite also had a decent season with the Pune based franchise by scoring 118 raid points. Nitin Tomar had an sorry season where he could score only 66 raid points in the season. Defense of Puneri Paltan looked little bit in control with PO Surjeet Singh being their best defender in season 7 with 64 tackle points. Giresh and Jadhav had average seasons with 33 and 37 points respectively. Puneri Paltan will look to build a stronger unit with dependable raiders and defenders in the upcoming player auctions.

Talking about Retentions, Puneri Paltan will look to retain PO Surjeet Singh, Giresh and Balasahab Jadhav. They can also look at Pawan Kadiyan who did not get a lot of chance last season, but of-late has been looking in good form outside of PKL. Pankaj Mohite and Sanket Sawant should ideally be retained by the Pune Franchise. FMB cards can be used on Nitin Tomar and Majeet given their high price, and look to buy more dependable raiders and defenders in the upcoming player auctions to further strengthen their squad.

Likely Retention:

Pankaj Mohite, PO Surjeet Singh, Giresh Ernak, Balasahab Jadhav, Pawan Kadiyan, Sanket Sawanth

Likely FBMs:

Manjeet, Nitin Tomar

U Mumba: PKL Season 2 Champions! 

U Mumba Team list from PKL Season 7

U Mumba have been one of the most successful franchise in the Pro Kabaddi League history, winning the title in season 2 and also making it to the finals in season 1 and 3. After the first 3 seasons things have looked a little downhill for the franchise from Mumbai. They made it to the play offs in season 6 and 7 but did not get their hands on title. Season 7 for U Mumba was mixed emotion season where they dominated the tournament in phases. They won 12 out of the 22 games to make it to the play offs but eventually got eliminated to Bengal Warriors in the Semi-Final 2 of the league. Abhishek Singh and Arjun Deshwal took care of the raiding department and did good job for the franchise and finished the season with 169 and 109 raid points respectively. The back raiders in the team was Athul MS and Rohit Baliyan who had decent season finishing with 58 and 51 raid points respectively. Defense unit of UMumba was led by their captain and most expensive player of the season for them- Fazel Atrachali who ended the season as the best defender of the tournament with 79 tackle points. The other corner Sandeep Narwal also had a good season 58 tackle points to his name. The cover was taken care by Surender Singh who had a good season with 54 tackle points and Harender Kumar was the other cover who had a average season with 20 tackle points to his name.

The raiding duo can be considered for retention for U Mumba- Abhishek Singh, Arjun Deshwal along with Sandeep Narwal and Akinkya Kapre. Fazel ideally would be a better bet if they could release him and try to get the defender in as an FBM given his price. Other players they can look for FBM are- Rohit Baliyan and Athul MS. U Mumba can also take an gamble in releasing Sandeep Narwal and trying to get him at lower price with FBM card in place. U Mumba think tank will have challenging time in going through this process of retention and FBMs, it will be interesting to see how they go about it and approach the upcoming players auctions.

Likely Retention:

Abhishek Singh, Arjun Deshwal, Sandeep Narwal, Ajinkya Kapre

Likely FBMs:

Fazel Athrachali, Rohit Baliyan, Athul MS, Sandeep Narwal (Gamble)

UP Yoddha: Play off berth 3/3 times in PKL!!

UP Yoddha team list from PKL Season 7

The franchise from UP has had a good 3 seasons in the Pro Kabaddi League. Making its debut in season 5, UP Yoddha have successfully made it to the play offs in all 3 seasons they have been part of, but have gone more ahead in winning the tile or playing the final for that matter. In Season 7,  UP looked very good through out the season, but raiding was one department that looked a little weak as they finished 3rd in the points table. But they did not capitalize on the 3rd place to go down crashing to Bulls in the eliminator 1. Shrikant Jadhav had a pretty good season for the Yodhas as he scored 152 raid points in the season. Surender Gill- the MYP and Rishank had decent seasons as they finished the tournament with 77 and 79 points respectively to sum up the raiding of UP Yoddha. The defense led by their captain Nitesh Kumar had a good season where he finished 3rd in the best defenders table with 76 tackle points to his name. Followed by Sumit who had an great season with the similar number of points as Nitesh. Both the corners made UP defense look threatening in the league. The cover defense was taken care by Ashu Singh and Amit who had average seasons with 41 and 36 points respectively. UP has formidable unit, with strengthening of their Raiding department they would look very good and will be in contention for a PKL title.

First player to get retained will surely be their Captain Nitesh who is one of top corners in the country of-late. Sumit will also get the retention, given his amazing performance in season 7. Monu Goyat, Sachin Kumar, and Ashu Singh can be the other retention candidates. FBMs can be used on Shrikant Jadhav and Rishank Devadiga to ensure they are have solid team. With few good buys in the auctions they should be all set for PKL 8.

Likely Retention:

Nitesh Kumar, Sumit, Monu Goyat, Sachin Kumar, Ashu Singh

Likely FBMs:

Shrikant Jadhav, Rishank Devadiga

Telugu Titans: Out of Form Titans!!!!

Telugu Titans Team list from PKL Season 7

Telugu Titans, one of the popular teams in the Pro Kabaddi League, rode on the stardom of Rahul Chaudhari in the first 6  seasons of the league, and last year it was Sidddharth Desai. Telugu Titans have made it to the play offs twice out of 7 occasions in the tournament. Team has not see much success in the league even with having the star players. Season 7 was again the same story as there was no one who could support Siddharth Desai, who carried the full burden of the team on his shoulder- just like Bahubali, but failed to carry the team into the play offs. Over the years in multiple sports we have seen teams that depend on few big names does not historically do well in any leagues. Siddharth Desai scored 220 points in the tournament to finish as the 4th best raider. The next best raider for them was Rakesh Gowda with 51 points- read that again!!! over dependence on Siddharth was clearly exposed. Interestingly the Rajnish, Suraj Desai, Farhad Milaghardan all of them finished back to back in the bast raiders list with 48, 48 and 47 points to their name, still less than what Siddharth scored. The defense unit saw Vishal Bharadwaj score 62 tackle points in the season. After Vishal it was Farhad and Abozar with 33 and 30 tackle points respectively, sums up the sorry story for Titans. In the upcoming player auctions, Titans would love to get good raiders who can support Siddharth and also strengthen the defense a bit. 

The Retention list should surely feature Vishal Bharadwaj, Abozar, Farhad which makes their defense look decent. Along with these names they might also like retain Rakesh Gowda and Krushna Madane. Siddharth Desai at this high price should ideally be released and look at him as an FMB candidate- but given his good form in the 68th Senior National might earn him some big bucks in the auction again? Titans will have to be a bit careful here when thinking about SIddharth as FBM. Abozar also at this price will be a good option to be an FBM candidate depending on his cost of retention.

Likely Retention:

Vishal Bharadwaj, Abozar, Farhad Milagardhan, Krushna Madane, Rakesh Gowda, Siddharth Desai??

Likely FBMs:

Siddharth Desai, Abozar Mighani

Tamil Thalaivas: Star Studded, but with stars of Yesterday??

Tami Thalaivas Team list from PKL season 7

Tamil Thalaivas have been part of the Pro Kabaddi League since season 6 and all three seasons they finished rock bottom in the points table. Season 7 again was no different, the team was built around some big names in the likes of Rahul Chaudhari, Ajay Thakur, Mohit Chhillar and Manjeet Chhillar, expecting a different kind of season compared to previous two seasons. But it was not the case it back fired big time as none of the big names got going as expected and the team failed. Ajit Kumar had a breakthrough season with the Thalaivas last season, he ended the season with 125 raid points in the limited opportunities he got. The defense was super weak and did not deliver as the Thalaivas did not feature even a single defender in the top 30 defenders in the league. Ran Singh scored 32 points and was the best defenders in the tournament for them. They have serious work to do in the upcoming player auctions as they need to build a good squad that can deliver.

Talking about retention, it has to be young guns from the team- Ajith Kumar has lot of potential with age on his side, M Abhishek will also be an good retention candidate.  Another cover Ajeet will be a good bet in retention. Other than these names, the big names- Rahul Chaudhari. Mohit Chhillar, Ran Singh all can be FBM candidates based on the price they fetch in the auctions. It looks like its end of road for few players- Manjeet Chhillar and Ajay Thakur.

Likely Retention:

Ajith Kumar, M Abishek, Ajeet

Likely FBMs:

Rahul Chaudhari. Ran Singh, Mohit Chhillar

Stay Tuned to Kabaddi Adda for all Auction related updates from PKL season 8 Auctions!