The Ahmedabad leg of Pro Kabaddi League Season 7 ended on Friday with Gujarat Fortunegiants losing all four home matches. With it, the general trend of most teams struggling at home continued.
Here are ESPN's power rankings from the fourth leg of the season:
Kabaddi home | PKL 7: Full coverage | Fantasy tips | Live scores
#10 Ajay Thakur
Raider, Tamil Thalaivas
The Thalaivas captain hasn't made a substantial dent on the scoring charts so far, but he has played a key role in his team's last two matches, a tie and a win. The Thalaivas won their only match in Ahmedabad, against Gujarat, courtesy of an all-round effort spearheaded by Thakur's nine raiding points.
#9 Rohit Baliyan
Raider, U Mumba
Rohit Baliyan was the standout player in U Mumba's win over Patna Pirates in their only match in Ahmedabad. After trailing 22-9 at halftime, Patna fought back to cut the deficit to a point in the last minute. Baliyan then pulled off a super raid to score three of his nine points from the match and extinguish Patna's hopes of a comeback.
#8 Vishal Bhardwaj
Defender, Telugu Titans
After four losses, a tie and another loss, the Titans finally got their first win of the season in Ahmedabad. It was all thanks to Vishal Bhardwaj, whose efficiency in pulling off all seven of his tackles earned the Titans a 30-24 win over Gujarat. Bhardwaj is currently joint second on the list of tackle points scored.
#7 Shrikant Jadhav
Raider, UP Yoddha
UP managed one win, two ties and three lopsided defeats in their first six matches. With Monu Goyat and Shrikant Jadhav finally starting to fire, they look more promising after a win and a loss, a close one, in Ahmedabad. Although Monu has more points to his name, Shrikant was the slightly more consistent player in those two matches.
#6 K Prapanjan
Raider, Bengal Warriors
Prapanjan's ability to regularly chip in with raiding points has helped solidify the Warriors. Prapanjan and Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh, who is playing his maiden PKL season, have shored up the Warriors, allowing them to have a good team showing even when main raider and captain Maninder Singh does not have a strong individual performance. Prapanjan was the leading scorer in the team's win over Gujarat and contributed in the tie against the Titans.
#5 Naveen Kumar
Raider, Dabang Delhi KC
Naveen's consistency has helped him to second place on the list of total points scored so far this season, even if he is some way behind Pawan Kumar Sehrawat. More importantly, another Super 10 from him helped Delhi edge Puneri Paltan to win their only match in Ahmedabad and get on top of the table, before Jaipur Pink Panthers, who have played one match more, displaced them.
#4 Vikash Kandola
Raider, Haryana Steelers
The Steelers have gathered some momentum by winning their last three matches, two of which came in Ahmedabad. Vikash Kandola, who scored 12 points each against Bengaluru Bulls and UP Yoddha, helped secure those victories. He has now surpassed Naveen as his team's top scorer.
#3 Sumit
Defender, UP Yoddha
Like Nitesh Kumar last season, Sumit has been UP's defensive find in this edition. Impressive since the start of this season, Sumit teamed up with Nitesh to successfully tackle Pawan multiple times in UP's win over Bengaluru Bulls. Although UP lost their next match, to Haryana Steelers, Sumit's efficiency has impressed. He is currently second in the list of successful tackles.
#2 Pawan Kumar Sehrawat
Raider, Bengaluru Bulls
In Bengaluru's two losses in Ahmedabad, Haryana Steelers and UP Yoddha showed that there are ways to limit the damage inflicted by Pawan. A simple, effective strategy was to make the most of the time Pawan was off the mat by dialling up the aggression. Even so, it was near impossible to keep Pawan out of the action when he was on court. In addition to 17 raid points, Pawan also scored five tackle points in the two matches and was Bengaluru's best defender in the loss to UP.
#1 Deepak Hooda
All-rounder, Jaipur Pink Panthers
The third-highest all-time points scorer in PKL has been key to Jaipur's improved showing this season, with the inaugural champions having won six of their seven matches so far. Hooda led his team to a win against Puneri Paltan with nine points. In a low-scoring win over Gujarat, he also contributed to the defence, which proved to be the difference between the two teams. With the win, Jaipur are now table-toppers.