Here’s all you need to know about the new Pro Kabaddi League season starting on Wednesday.
The long wait for the return of the Pro Kabaddi League is almost over. After more than 20 months since the previous edition that was held between July and October 2019, Pro Kabaddi is set to return for yet another full season. The eighth edition of the tournament commences on 22 December.
The 2019 edition of the tournament witnessed a new champion when Bengal Warriors outclassed Dabang Delhi 39-34 in the final in Ahmedabad for their maiden title. Bengal Warriors, as a result, became the fifth team to lift the Pro Kabaddi League trophy, with Patna Pirates (three titles) having won the most.
Mashal Sports, the organisers of the Pro Kabaddi, were forced to cancel the 2020 edition owing to the coronavirus outbreak, but the return of the league, that has grown in popularity among the kabaddi fanbase, will certainly bring a cheer this time around.
Previously, the tournament had been held across various cities in India, but this time, it will follow a single-city format with Bengaluru hosting all of the matches. All the matches will be held at the Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel and Convention Centre inside a bio-secure bubble.
And for the first time, spectators have been prohibited from attending matches owing to COVID-19 , which means all matches would be held behind closed doors.
“We are very privileged that Season 8 of the vivo Pro Kabaddi league will be hosted in Karnataka, especially as this state is a very significant geography for kabaddi and PKL fans in India,” League Commissioner Anupam Goswami had said via a release in October while announcing the start date.
“Bengaluru has all the facilities needed for conducting big, competitive sports events, with best safety practices. We look forward to demonstrating this with PKL Season 8,” he had added.
The PKL 2021 auctions took place between 29 August and 31 August with Pardeep Narwal to UP Yodhas for Rs 1.65 crore becoming the most expensive buy in the history of the tournament.
Deepak Niwas Hooda to Jaipur Pink Panthers (Rs 55 lakh) and Siddharth Desai (Rs 1.30 crore) to Telugu Titans were couple of other notable Indian purchases, while Iran’s Mohammedreza Shadloui Chiyaneh to Patna Pirates (Rs 31 lakh) was the costliest overseas buy at this season’s auction.
Here’s all you need to know ahead of the season-opener on 22 December:
Tournament format
While the Pro Kabaddi followed a zonal format in its fifth and sixth seasons, it returned to a double round robin format in 2019, and this time, too the tournament will follow the same format.
All 12 teams will now form a single league phase, with the top six teams qualifying for the playoffs.
While the top two teams earn a direct entry to the semi-finals, the teams placed from third to sixth play out eliminators for the remaining two spots.
The winners of the two eliminators join the other two semi-finalists, and then, the teams that come out on top in the semis, play in the final.
Teams and squads
Bengaluru Bulls: Pawan Sehrawat (captain), Abolfazl Maghsoodloo Mahali, Banty, Chandran Ranjit, Deepak Narwal, Dong Geon Lee, More GB, Naseeb, Rohit Sangwan, Mayur Kadam, Mohit Sehrawat, Mahender Singh, Saurabh Nandal, Amit Sheoran, Ankit, Vikas
Puneri Paltan: Nitin Tomar (captain), Abinesh Nadarajan, Balasaheb Shahaji Jadhav, Baldev Singh, E Subash, Govind Gurjar, Hadi Tajik, Karamvir, Mohit Goyat, Pankaj Mohite, Pawan Kumar Kadian, Rahul Chaudhari, Sanket Sawant, Sombir, Sourav Kumar, Victor Onyango Obiero, Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishwas S
U Mumba: Fazel Atrachali (captain), Abhishek Singh, Jashandeep Singh, Navneet, Rahul Rana, V Ajith, Ajeet, Harendra Kumar, Sunil Siddhgavali, Rinku HC, Ajinkya Kapre, Ashish Kumar, Mohsen Maghsoudlou, Pankaj
UP Yoddha: Nitesh Kumar (captain), Pardeep Narwal, Aman Hooda, Ankit, Gulveer Singh, James Kamweti, Mohammed Taghi, Rohit, Rohit Tomar, Sahil, Shrikant Jadhav, Surender Gill, Ashu Singh, Aashish Nagar, Bintu Narwal, Shubham Kumar, Gaurav Kumar, Sumit, Gurdeep, Nitin Panwar
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh (captain), Rishank Devadiga, Sukesh Hegde, Abozar Mohajermighani, Rinku Narwal, Rohit Banne, Esmaeil Nabi Bakhsh, Ravindra Kumawat, Akash Pikalmunde, Anand V, Darshan J, Vijin Thangadurai, Amit, Parveen, Sachin Vittala, Manoj Gowda, Rohit, Tapas Pal
Patna Pirates: Prashanth Kumar Rai (captain), Monu Goyat, Monu, Mohit, Guman Singh, Rajveersinh Chavan, Sachin Tanwar, Selvamani K, Neeraj Kumar, Sandeep, Shubham Shinde, Sourav Gulia, Sunil, C Sajin, Daniel Omondi, Sahil Mann, Shadloui Chianeh
Dabang Delhi: Joginder Narwal (captain), Ajay Thakur, Naveen Kumar, Ashu Malik, Emad Sedaghatnia, Neeraj Narwal, Sushant Sail, Jeeva Kumar, Mohit, Sumit, Mohammed Malak, Vikash Kumar, Balram, Manjeet Chhillar, Sandeep Narwal, Vijay Jaglan.
Jaipur Pink Panthers: Deepak Niwas Hooda (captain), Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Amir Hossein Mohammad Maleki, Amit Hooda, Amit Kharb, Amit Nagar, Arjun Deshwal, Ashok, Elavarasan A, Mohammad Amin Nosrati, Naveen Dilbag, Nitin Rawal, Pavan TR, Sachin Narwal, Sandeep Dhull, Shaul Kumar, Sushil Gulia, Vishal Lather
Haryana Steelers: Vikas Khandola (captain), Akshay Kumar, Ashish, Mohammad Esmaeil, Vinay, Ravi Kumar, Chand Singh, Rajesh Gurjar, Surender Nada, Ajay, Hamid Nader, Rajesh Narwal, Rohit Gulia, Shrikant Tewthia, Vikas Jaglan
Tamil Thalaivas: Surjeet Singh (Captain), Ajinkya Ashok Pawar, Anwar Saheed Baba, Athul Ms, Bhavani Rajput, Himanshu, K. Prapanjan, M. Abishek, Manjeet, Mohammad Tuhin Tarafder, Sagar, Sagar B. Krishna, Sahil, Santhapanaselvam, Sourabh Tanaji Patil
Gujarat Giants: Parvesh Bhainswal (captain), Ajay Kumar, Ankit, Girish Maruti Ernak, Hadi Oshtorak, Harmanjit Singh, Harshit Yadav, Mahender Rajput, Maninder Singh, Pardeep Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Rathan K, Ravinder Pahal, Soleiman Pahlevani, Sonu, Sumit
Telugu Titans: Rohit Kumar (captain), Siddharth Desai, Amit Chauhan, Ankit Beniwal, Galla Raju, Hyunsu Park, Rajnish, Rakesh Gowda, Akash Dattu Arsul, Akash Choudhary, Manissh, Adarsh T, C Arun, Sandeep Kandola, Prince D, Ruturaj Koravi, Surinder Singh, Tetsuro Abe
Matches schedule
Mashal Sports, the organisers, have announced that ‘Triple Headers’ will take place on the first four days of the tournament so that every team gets to open their campaign. Furthermore, it added that there would be similar Triple Headers on all Saturdays. The timings for the Triple Headers will be 7.30 pm, 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm IST.
So far, only the schedule for the tournament’s first half has been released by the organisers. Here’s a look:
22 December: Bengaluru Bulls vs U Mumba (7.30 pm); Telugu Titans vs Tamil Thalaivar (8.30 pm); Bengal Warriors vs UP Yoddha (9.30 pm)
23 December: Gujarat Giants vs Jaipur Pink Panthers (7.30 pm); Dabang Delhi vs Puneri Paltan (8.30 pm); Haryana Steelers vs Patna Pirates (9.30 pm)
24 December: U Mumba vs Dabang Delh (7.30 pm)i; Tamil Thalaivas vs Bengaluru Bulls (8.30 pm); Bengal Warriors vs Gujarat Giants (9.30 pm)
25 December: Patna Pirates vs UP Yoddha (7.30 pm); Puneri Paltan vs Telugu Titans (8.30 pm); Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Haryana Steelers (9.30 pm)
26 December: Gujarat Giants vs Dabang Delhi (7.30 pm); Bengaluru Bulls vs Bengal Warriors (8.30 pm)
27 December: Tamil Thalaivar vs U Mumba (7.30 pm); UP Yoddha vs Jaipur Pink Panthers (8.30 pm)
28 December: Puneri Paltan vs Patna Pirates (7.30 pm); Telugu Titans vs Haryana Steelers (8.30 pm)
29 December: Dabang Delhi vs Bengal Warriors (7.30 pm); UP Yoddha vs Gujarat Giants (8.30 pm)
30 December: Jaipur Pink Panthers vs U Mumba (7.30 pm); Haryana Steelers vs Bengaluru Bulls (8.30 pm)
31 December: Tamil Thalaivas vs Puneri Paltan (7.30 pm); Patna Pirates vs Bengal Warriors
1 January: U Mumba vs UP Yoddha (7.30 pm); Bengaluru Bulls vs Telugu Titans (8.30 pm); Dabang Delhi vs Tamil Thalaivar (9.30 pm)
2 January: Gujarat Giants vs Haryana Steelers (7.30 pm); Puneri Paltan vs Bengaluru Bulls (8.30 pm)
3 January: Bengal Warriors vs Jaipur Pink Panthers (7.30 pm); Telugu Titans vs Patna Pirates (8.30 pm)
4 January: Haryana Steelers vs U Mumba (7.30 pm); UP Yoddha vs Tamil Thalaivar (8.30 pm)
5 January: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Giants (7.30 pm); Dabang Delhi vs Telugu Titans (8.30 pm)
6 January: Patna Pirates vs Tamil Thalaivas (7.30 pm); Bengaluru Bulls vs Jaipur Pink Panthers (8.30 pm)
7 January: Bengal Warriors vs Haryana Steelers (7.30 pm); Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Puneri Paltan (8.30 pm)
8 January: UP Yoddha vs Dabang Delhi (7.30 pm); U Mumba vs Telugu Titans (8.30 pm); Gujarat Giants vs Patna Pirates (9.30 pm)
9 January: Puneri Paltan vs Bengal Warriors (7.30 pm); Bengaluru Bulls vs UP Yoddha (8.30 pm)
10 January: Tamil Thalaivas vs Haryana Steelers (7.30 pm); Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Dabang Delhi (8.30 pm)
11 January: Patna Pirates vs U Mumba (7.30 pm); Telugu Titans vs Gujarat Giants (8.30 pm)
12 January: Haryana Steelers vs UP Yoddha (7.30 pm); Dabang Delhi vs Bengaluru Bulls (8.30 pm)
13 January: Bengal Warriors vs Tamil Thalaivas (7.30 pm); U Mumba vs Puneri Paltan (8.30 pm)
14 January: Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Patna Pirates (7.30 pm); Gujarat Giants vs Bengaluru Bulls (8.30 pm)
15 January: Haryana Steelers vs Dabang Delhi (7.30 pm); UP Yoddha vs Telugu Titans (8.30 pm); U Mumba vs Bengal Warriors (9.30 pm)
16 January: Tamil Thalaivas vs Jaipur Pink Panthers (7.30 pm); Patna Pirates vs Bengaluru Bulls (8.30 pm)
17 January: Puneri Paltan vs UP Yoddha (7.30 pm); Telugu Titans vs Bengal Warriors (8.30 pm)
18 January: Dabang Delhi vs Patna Pirates (7.30 pm); Gujarat Giants vs U Mumba (8.30 pm)
19 January: Haryana Steelers vs Puneri Paltan (7.30 pm); Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Telugu Titans (8.30 pm)
20 January: Tamil Thalaivas vs Gujarat Giants (7.30 pm)
How can I watch/follow the Pro Kabaddi League 2021?
The Pro Kabaddi League 2021 will be telecast on the Star Sports Network TV channels, and will be streamed LIVE on Disney + Hotstar. You can also read latest news and updates regarding the tournament on Firstpost.com.