The Bengaluru franchise is going through another transition as the new era for the Bulls is set to begin. The sixth edition champions under the new offensive leader are aiming to continue their dominating run at the grandest stage of Kabaddi. Hence, ‘Parimatch News‘ brings in-depth analysis of the Bengaluru Bulls squad for the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9.
The Bulls’ Season 9 journey was ended by the eventual champions Dabang Delhi on the night of the second semifinal. After the consummation of the league stage, Bengaluru found themselves in the fifth position on the standings with 66 points from 22 round-robin fixtures. The Karnataka-based outfit knocked Gujarat Giants out from the eliminator round and then suffered a 40-35 defeat at the hands of eventual champions Dabang Delhi.
The legendary Kabaddi figure Randhir Singh Sehrawat will be taking the charge of this franchise for the ninth straight season. However, many things have changed in this season especially the broken teacher-student bond between Randhir and Pawan. A revamped Bulls squad is fully charged and ready to roll down to the forthcoming PKL Season 9 saga.
Squad
Raiders: Vikash Kandola, GB More, Neeraj Narwal, Harmanjit Singh, Lal Mohar Yadav, Nageshor Tharu
Defenders: Mahender Singh, Saurabh Nandal, Mayur Kadam, Aman Antil, Sudhakar Kadam, Rohit Tanwar, Yash Hooda, Vinod Naik, Rajnish Narwal
All-rounders: Bharat Hooda, Rahul Khatik, Sachin Narwal
Raid Department
Vikash Kandola is the most expensive Bengaluru Bulls player of all time!
It’s quite difficult for anyone to replace Pawan Kumar Sehrawat as the strike raider of Bengaluru Bulls considering the kind of influence he had on this franchise. However, the gaffer Randhir Singh Sehrawat has already chosen his next ace raider in the form of Vikash Kandola. The young, energetic and highly skilled raider will now be leading the offensive charge of the Karnataka-based franchise as their costliest player ever.
The stalwart raider is acquainted with the tactics and system of his coach Sehrawat after spending initial years with him at the Indian Railways setup. Kandola played a vital role in Railways Sports Promotion Board’s four consecutive Senior Nationals triumph along with Pawan who he is now going to replace at Bengaluru. Vikash was the poster boy of his home side Haryana Steelers for the past four seasons and also captained them in the previous edition.
Vikash will be accommodated by the likes of GB More and Bharat Hooda to settle him down in no time. Both of them did well in the last campaign as the third raider and have been rewarded with retentions for their services. The PKL-winning youngster Neeraj Narwal has also arrived at the Bulls at the auction price of 43 Lac to play the role of support raider.
Defense Department
The defensive department was one of the main reasons why the Bulls could not succeed much in PKL Season 8. It’s quite important for the participating team to have adequate squad depth in a long PKL campaign where they will have to play a minimum of 22 games. Hence the Bulls managed to hold their first-choice defenders but also made efforts to have quality options for each position.
The corner defensive pair of Saurabh Nandal and Aman Antil will be once again seen donning the key positions for the sixth-edition champions. Nandal was the third-highest scoring defender of the previous season with 69 tackle points while Aman also contributed 53 tackle points to the team tally. The Haryana-based right-corner defender Saurabh is the highest tackle points scorer for Bengaluru Bulls since his debut in Season 7.
Bulldozer Mahender Singh with his trademark block move!
On the other hand, the hulky cover duo of Mahender Singh and Mayur Kadam will also continue to pair up for yet another season. They initially struggled a lot and found it very tough to pair with each other but eventually got themselves along. The Services left-cover Mahender who was the deputy of the skipper Pawan in the last season is now a frontrunner to be the next captain of the Bulls.
The presence of Sudhakar Kadam, Rahul Khatik, Sachin Narwal and GB More provides more options for the coach and also strengthens their defensive line. More turned himself into an established all-rounder in the last season which also earned him a place in Starting Seven. Sudhakar Kadam who won the bronze medal at the 68th Senior National Championship for Maharashtra with Mayur Kadam will be providing backup to Mahender Singh at the left cover position.
Foreign Knights
The Bulls bid adieu to the Iranian raider Abolfazel Maghsoudlou and Dong Geon Lee who were part of their foreign pool of the previous roster. It was a surprising decision from the Bengaluru team management to not retain the two high-profile foreign stars ahead of the ninth edition. However, they replaced them with the Nepalese raiding duo of Lal Mohar Yadav and Nageshor Tharu at the base prices of 10-10 Lac.
Yadav and Nageshor were strike raiders of the Nepal side which toured Bangladesh in 2021 to play the pentangular Bangabandhu Kabaddi Cup. Lal Mohar Yadav was also part of the Nepal national team which won the silver medal at the 2019 South Asian Games after losing against India in the finals. The veteran left-raider has lifted the prestigious PKL trophy with the Bulls in Season 6 but is yet to make his debut at the grand stage.
NYP Trump Cards
Randhir Singh Sehrawat has extended the stay of his two disciplines Aman Antil and Bharat Hooda whom he presented to the Pro Kabaddi universe out of nowhere. In his debut campaign at the PKL, Aman went on to fetch 53 tackle points from 23 games and emerged as the second highest scoring defender for the Karnataka-based franchise. The left-corner defender had tough competition from Amit Sheoran for that position however, he still outclassed him to earn the first-choice status.
Bharat Hooda is one of those stars whom the gaffer Sehrawat exposed to the PKL stage after scouting them at local tournaments. He had an impressive debut season with the Bulls where he scored 115 raid points and 14 tackle points from 23 appearances. The towering raider did a great job by providing support to Pawan and now he has been retained by the management to replicate the same.
The brand new NYP batch of Bengaluru Bulls features the budding names of Rohit Tanwar, Vinod Naik, Rajnish Narwal and Yash Hooda. Rohit and Vinod were part of the franchise’s development side last season too and both of them have been promoted to the first team. The sturdy right-cover defender Rajnish is another young prodigy who is identified as the product of the Yuva Kabaddi Series.
Strongest Starting Seven
Vikash Kandola (Raider), GB More (Raider), Neeraj Narwal (Raider), Mahender Singh (Left Cover), Mayur Kadam (Right Cover), Aman Antil (Left Corner), Saurabh Nandal (Right Corner).