Kolkata, September 11
Winners of Season 7 of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), Bengal Warriorz will be eager to reclaim the PKL title following an underwhelming campaign that saw them miss out on the Playoffs after finishing seventh in the league stage standings last time around.
Ahead of Season 11, Bengal Warriorz parted ways with ex-head coach K Baskaran, who was part of their team for the last two seasons and replaced him with their former assistant coach Prashant Surve. Furthermore, former kabaddi player Praveen Yadav, has been named as the assistant coach of Bengal Warriorz.
Busy at the Season 11 Player Auction table, which was held in Mumbai on August 15 and 16, Bengal Warriorz ended with a squad that covered most of their bases.
The Season 7 champions' biggest strength has to be the quality and experience of the raiders and defenders in their squad. The Warriorz ensured they retained their captain Maninder Singh by exercising their Final Bid Match (FBM) card for Rs 1.15 crores. Second on the leaderboard for most raid points in PKL history, Maninder has notched up 1,428 raid points in PKL.
He will lead the raiding department of Bengal Warriorz alongside the likes of Nitin Kumar, Vishwas S, Pranay Rane and newcomer Arjun Rathi, who got picked for Rs 41 lakhs as the most expensive Category D player. With multiple options in attack to choose from, the Warriorz can be safe in the knowledge that they have plenty of raiding firepower should injuries or a dip in form force a change in their plans.
Meanwhile, their defence doesn't look like an easy one to get the better of either. After signing Fazel Atrachali - the top-scoring defender (486 tackle points) in PKL history - for Rs 50 lacs at the Player Auction, Bengal Warriorz have now ensured that they have top-quality players on both ends of the mat to lead the team by example.
Fazel Atrachali will also be supported by Nitesh Kumar, who is sixth on the all-time leaderboard for most tackle points (350). The star-studded defensive corner duo of Bengal Warriorz will also be supported by the likes of Mayur Kadam and Vaibhav Garje, both of whom have shown that they have what it takes to be a success in Pro Kabaddi.