The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL10) player auctions saw records tumble as Pawan Kumar Sehrawat [once again!] emerged as the League's most-expensive player, while Mohammadreza Shadlou became the most-expensive overseas player.
PKL Auctions Highlights: Pawan, Shadlou break records
Telugu Titans splurged ₹2.605 crore to bring Pawan on board, who led India to the Asian Games gold medal last week, while Puneri Paltan spent ₹2.31 crore to sign Iran's Shadlou. Another player, Maninder Singh, went past the ₹2 crore mark as he was roped in by Bengal Warriors for ₹2.12 crores.
ESPN takes a look at how the 12 teams fared the the PKL player auctions:
Bengal Warriors
Grade: A
Best signing: Maninder Singh. PKL's Mr. Consistent and the second-best raider of all time.
Auction summary: Seeing Maninder Singh in the auction pool was surprising, considering he has been with the Bengal Warriors for five seasons. But the Warriors used their Final Bid to Match (FBM) card to retain him for a hefty figure of ₹2.12 crore. They also used the FBM for Shrikant Jadhav and Shubham Shinde. The arrival of a superb defender in Nitin Rawal and Chinese Taipei's Chai-Ming Chang offers Bengal Warriors plenty of firepower.
TL;DR: Got Maninder Singh back, retained their three best players. A good auction overall.
Maninder Singh: How PKL's strongest raider has become its most consistent
Bengaluru Bulls
Grade: B+
Best Signing: Piotr Pamulak. The Polish raider is an unknown entity in the PKL and could very well take the League by storm. He's played a bunch of kabaddi for Poland and their leagues, both on the mat as well as beach kabaddi. Oh, and he's also played American football!
Auction summary: Bengaluru Bulls retained their core and only needed a couple of reinforcements. They had the fans dreaming of a reunion with Pawan Sehrawat and aggressively went after him at the auction, as well as Maninder Singh and Siddarth Desai, but could not close the deal and instead retained Vikash Khandola. They have a solid defender in Surjeet Singh, while Abhishek Singh can support the raiding unit.
TL;DR: Retained most of their squad, but did not get their target man.
Dabang Delhi KC
Grade: A
Best Signing: Meetu Sharma, a stocky raider who also has a mean tackle on him.
Auction summary: They have one of the best raiders in India - Naveen Kumar. But Dabang Delhi still went after more raiders and paid big money to buy back Ashu Malik (₹96.25 lakhs) and sign on Meetu Sharma (₹93 lakhs). The arrival of Vishal Bhardwaj will fill the left corner position, while Dabang Delhi, under a new coach in PKL 10, also have two raiders from England - Felix Li and Yuvraj Pandeya.
TL;DR: Spent big money, have one of the best raiding units on PKL10.
Lightning quick Manjeet Sharma the latest in long line of fine Dabang Delhi raiders
Gujarat Giants
Grade: A
Best Signing: Fazel Atrachali. May not be the best defender on form but is the best captain PKL has ever seen.
Auction summary: Gujarat Giants have a crew of young Indians, who will now be led by a superb leader - Fazel. The Iranian's arrival will do a world of good to the Giants' defence [they had the least tackle points in PKL9] and the calm head on his shoulders will help groom youngsters like Rakesh HS and Parteek Dahiya. Plus, Fazel reunites with PKL's most successful coach, Ram Mehar Singh.
TL;DR: Did well to sign not just Fazel, but also his compatriot Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh. Gujarat Giants have drafted a balanced team on the whole.
Haryana Steelers
Grade: B-
Best Signing: Siddharth Desai. Has had a couple of injury-plagued seasons and will need to come good this time around.
Auction summary: They had a mixed auction: did not land their first target Pawan and might have broken the bank a bit to sign Siddharth for ₹1 crore. Haryana Steelers also roped in veteran raider Chandran Ranjith and a strong defender in Rahul Sethpal. It is a balanced squad but lacks a standout player. Maybe this season will see the emergence of that.
TL;DR: Not the best of auctions: no proven overseas players, might depend heavily on a few players.
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Jaipur Pink Panthers
Grade: B
Best Signing: None.
Auction summary: To be fair, Jaipur Pink Panthers didn't even need to be at the auction. The reigning champions retained all their star players from last season. They only signed seven players, with Rahul Chaudhari, who first went unsold, making a return. The Pink Panthers also roped in Iranian raider Amir Hossein Mohammadmaleki, to add more teeth to their already full-tooted raiding team.
TL;DR: Didn't really need to be at the auction, already retained their ace players from PKL9. Rahul Chaudhari returns.
Arjun Deshwal - Jaipur Pink Panthers' raider for all seasons
Patna Pirates
Grade: A
Best Signing: Chinese Taipei's Zheng-Wei Chen. He was brilliant at the Asian Games and had an array of sharp skills - from lightning-quick running hand touches to blink-and-you-miss-it bonus point attempts.
Auction summary: Patna Pirates enjoyed a good auction and have built a formidable team. Bringing on Manjeet for ₹92 lakhs and Chen completes their raiding department, while Krishan will join the skipper Neeraj Kumar in defence. They let go of Mohammadreza Shadlou and have signed three Indian all-rounders [Ankit, Rohit and Sajin Chandrashekar] to replace him.
TL;DR: A good outing overall, watch out for their multi-pronged raiding roster.
Puneri Paltan
Grade: A
Best Signing: Mohammadreza Shadlou, the Iranian showman. All eyes were on him at the auction and his ability to not only defend but also raid swimmingly well completely justifies his price tag of ₹2.31 crore. He's the most expensive overseas player in PKL history.
Auction summary: They did what they had to do: replace Fazel with Shadlou. The younger Iranian can play on the left corner and also raid, what more can you ask for? Puneri Paltan have a sprightly squad that's been retained from last year and only signed four players this time, which also includes Aslam Inamdar's younger brother Ahmed. However, there's one question though: with Fazel gone, who leads this young team?
TL;DR: Big points for getting Shadlou to join this brilliantly young team, but they will quickly need to establish a leader because they struggled last year when Fazel was not around.
PKL 9: How Fazel Atrachali's inspiring leadership helped Puneri Paltan seal spot in final
Tamil Thalaivas
Grade: B+
Best Signing: Amirhossein Bastami. A superb right corner defender, who won silver with Iran at the Asian Games. But if he plays right corner, where does young Sagar go?
Auction summary: Tamil Thalaivas opted for a bang-for-their-buck approach and signed the Iranian defensive duo of Bastami and Mohammadreza Kaboudrahangi. Interestingly though, their most expensive signing was unheralded raider Masanamuthu Lakshnanan (₹32.20 lakhs). It will be interesting to see how the new additions add value to a team that made its playoff debut last season.
TL;DR: Two solid defensive signings and one interesting addition to the raiding side of things, but the team lacks a big-league player. The onus will remain on the youngsters to shine.
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Telugu Titans
Grade: B+
Best Signing: Pawan Sehrawat. Need we say more? Another year, another record-breaking buy. This time, for ₹2.605 crores.
Auction summary: Telugu Titans fought tooth and nail to sign Pawan, which deserves a pat on the back. But the question remains, is that enough to win the League? They have a couple of well-performing players from PKL9 such as Parvesh Bhainswal and Rajnish, but will need a lot more than just these three to at least make it to the playoffs. They've also signed two Iranians - Milad Jabbari and Hamid Mirazei Nader - who should help their cause.
TL;DR: Stayed put until the end to sign Pawan. They have a couple more senior players, but is that enough for Pawan to work with and take this team to its first playoff appearance?
U Mumba
Grade: A+
Best Signing: Alireza Mirzaeian. Watch out for this 19-year-old Iranian. He's nimble-footed, a very clever raider and caused the Indian defence all sorts of problems at the Asian Kabaddi Championships. An absolute steal at ₹16.10 lakhs.
Auction summary: A well-strategized auction, they stayed away from the big names to sign two very promising Iranian raiders - Alireza and Amirmohammad Zafardanesh. Amirmohammad is an excellent raider but can defend too and gave a glimpse of that at the Asian Games. This augurs well for U Mumba as they are coached by Iranian national team coach Gholamreza Mazandarani. Guman Singh's retention makes the raiding unit look lethal, while Girish Ernak and Mahender Singh will add muscle to the defence.
TL;DR: U Mumba have signed two excellent Iranian players and made some solid domestic signings to set up a team that's primed to make the playoffs.
Meet Gholamreza Mazandarani: Coach behind Iran's historic Asiad gold joins U Mumba for PKL 10
UP Yoddha
Grade: B
Best Signing: Vijay Malik. Proved his mettle at Dabang Delhi, will now form a key partnership with Pardeep Narwal at UP Yoddhas.
Auction summary: UP Yoddhas filled most of their team with retentions, so didn't have to go big at the auctions. Vijay's arrival is great news as he can complement Pardeep and Surender Gill, while the defence was anyway set thanks to Nitesh Kumar's retention. Watch out for their two Kenyan all-rounders: Helvic Simuyu Wanjala and Samuel Wanjala Wafula.
TL;DR: Some necessary reinforcements made, a decent outing for UP Yoddhas.
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