Mumbai: A day after six players crossed Rs 1 crore mark in the Players’ Auction, Prashant Kumar Rai stole the headline on Day 2 by grabbing Rs 79 lakh bid for the Season 6 of Pro Kabaddi League in Mumbai on Thursday.
Prashant, who was the part of Haryana Steelers last season went to UP Yoddha. In season 5, Prashant had collected 62 raid points in 16 matches. Total 181 players were purchased by 12 franchises in the auction over two days.
Before the auction was conducted 40 players were retained by 12 teams under the categories of ‘Retained players list’ and ‘New Young Retained Players list’.
Good auction for Pune
Pune franchisee Puneri Paltan purchased a total of 18 players after spending Rs 1.15 crore for Nitin Tomar. On Day 2 Paltan was careful on their budget as they had to pick a good number of players in less budget.
“Today we were careful about our budget so we had a good thought before spending money on any player. We have got the balanced team this time. We wanted a set of good raiders this time and we have got it,” Puneri Paltan CEO Kailash Kandpal told Sakal Times.
Pune purchased Vinod Kumar, Bajrang, Deepak Kumar Dahiya, Akshay Jadhav, Shubham Shinde and Parvesh on the second day of the auction. “We have added Maharashtra flavour to our team with the inclusion of Akshay from Kolhapur, who is playing with us since last two seasons and now we have Shubham from Ratnagiri. The two are very talented and they can surprise any team on the given day,” added Kandpal.
Ashok Shinde who is with the Pune franchise since Season 2 is happy with the way auction went for Pune team. “The first day was tough but today (Thursday) we have got the players who have given the balance to our team. We have got two corners and two good raiders,” said Shinde, who is now mentor of Pune team.
Nitin looks better
“Nitin Tomar is an exact replacement of Deepak Hooda. Deepak was with us for last three seasons but he was not able to win the championship for us so we wanted a new player who can infuse new energy into the team,” added Shinde.
Key Players
Bengal Warriors: Ran Singh, Bhupender Singh, Surjeet Singh, Maninder Singh, Jan Kun Lee, Rakesh Narwal, Baldev Singh.
Bengaluru Bulls: Gyung Tae Kim, Rohit Kumar, Harish Naik, Sumit Singh, Kashiling Adake, Amit Shearon, Mahender Singh
Dabang Delhi: Meraj Sheykh, Rajesh Narwal, Pawan Kumar, Naveen Kumar, Tushar Bhoir, Viraj Langde, Vishal Mane.
Gujarat Fortunegiants: Dong Geon Lee, Sunil Kumar, Shubham Palkar, Amit Sharma,
Haryana Steelers: Kuldeep Singh, Wazir Singh, Monu Goyat, Vikas Khandola, Vikash, Neeraj Kumar, Surender Nada.
Jaipur Pink Panthers: Deepak Hooda, Anup Kumar, Mohit Chhillar, Sandeep Kumar.
Patna Pirates: Arvind Kumar, Parveen Birwal, Pardeep Narwal, Deepak Narwal.
Puneri Paltan: Sandeep Narwal, Amit Kumar, Rajesh Mondal, Nitin Tomar, Deepak Dhaiya, Girish Ernak, GB More.
Tamil Thalaivas: D Pradap, Manjeet Chhillar, Ajay Thakur, Jasvir Singh, Amit Hooda.
Telugu Titans: Nilesh Salunke, Rahul Choudhari, Abozar Mohajermighani.
UP Yoddha: Rishank Devadiga, Nitesh Kumar, Jeeva Kumar.
U Mumba: Abolfazl Maghsodloumahali, Fazel Atrachali, Anil, Dharamraj Cheralathan.
