There have been a lot of top performers this PKL season for different teams in raiding as well as defending. Today, we will try to make the team of the tournament from these star players who have performed well during the tournament. The team would consist of a starting 7 (the players who have performed extremely well) and 7 substitutes because this year the PKL rules allowed teams to name a 14-player match-day squad where they can make a maximum of 8 substitutions per match.
Starting with the two most important parts of a Kabaddi team and two pillars of the defense, the Left Corner and the Right Corner. For the left corner position, when I looked at the options there were three players who gave each other tough competition – Ankush Rathee, Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, and Saurabh Nandal.
There were many other defenders who played well in the left corner position, but these three were something else during the whole season. My pick for the left corner position in the team of the tournament is Ankush, just for the fact that he performed so well in his first PKL season and made his team reach the semi-finals leading the team’s defense department.
Coming to the right corner position, there were not too many options apart from Rinku Narwal and Sagar Rathee. My pick for the position is Sagar Rathee because even after not playing the whole season, he performed so well and made his team reach the playoffs for the first time ever in PKL history.
Coming to the other two defensive positions of a Kabaddi team, the Right Cover and the Left Cover. Since the right cover position is a very difficult position to be in on the Kabaddi mat, not many players impressed in that position, but two players were very good – Ashu Singh and Mayur Kadam.
My pick would be Ashu Singh, just for the fact that he had more points than Kadam and was very aggressive. The left cover position was not very difficult to choose because of the lack of performance by players in that position. My pick for that position is Vishal, who had a breakthrough PKL season this time.
So, four spots on the team of the tournament have been filled by defenders. Now, coming on to the raiders, there were many top performers who carried their teams single-handedly in this edition of the Pro Kabaddi League. To name a few, Arjun Deshwal, Bharat Hooda, Naveen Kumar, Maninder Singh, Narender Kandola, Parteek Dahiya, and Pardeep Narwal.
The raiders are the most difficult to pick as all of them had immense value for their respective teams this season. I choose raiders considering many factors such as performance do-or-die raids, super raids, consistency, support in defense, and many more.
The three defenders whom I felt should be a part of my team of the tournament are Arjun Deshwal, Bharat Hooda, and Naveen Kumar. These raiders proved lethal in any situation and performed well according to the situation of the match. The other contenders were not bad at all, but these three proved to be a notch higher than the rest.
So, the starting 7 of the team of the tournament looks like this –
Ankush (Left Corner, Jaipur Pink Panthers), Arjun Deshwal (Raider, Jaipur Pink Panthers), Vishal (Left Cover, Dabang Delhi K.C.), Naveen Kumar (Raider, Dabang Delhi K.C.), Bharat Hooda (Raider, Bengaluru Bulls), Ashu Singh (Right Cover, U.P. Yoddhas), and Sagar Rathee (Right Corner, Tamil Thalaivas).
Now, coming on to the substitutes (7), there was a whole lot of players to choose from for the substitutes. I decided to go with four raiders and three defenders for the seven substitutes in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 team of the tournament.
The four raiders whom I choose to be a part of my team of the tournament as players in the match-day squad are Maninder Singh, just for his sheer ability to change the match within one raid, Narender Khandola, who had the season of his life, Parteek Dahiya, who showed brilliant all-round game during the whole season, and Pardeep Narwal, whom we all know and his ability to turn the match in his team’s favor even in the last raid of the match.
Picking the three substitute defenders was not an easy task, but I somehow managed to do it. The defenders I picked are Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, the sole warrior of Patna Pirates this season, Rinku Narwal, who had a really good season with U Mumba, and Saurabh Nandal, who led the Bengaluru Bulls defense department the whole season.
So, the seven substitutes in the team of the tournament look like this –
Maninder Singh (Raider, Bengal Warriors), Narender Khandola (Raider, Tamil Thalaivas), Parteek Dahiya (All-rounder, Gujarat Giants), Pardeep Narwal (Raider, U.P. Yoddhas), Mohammadreza Chiyaneh (Defender, Patna Pirates), Rinku Narwal (Defender, U Mumba), and Saurabh Nandal (Defender, Bengaluru Bulls).
