The defending champions of the Pro Kabaddi League are gearing up to defend their honour at the grandest stage of Kabaddi. The ‘Naveen Express’ will once again depart from the capital city with an aim to reach out for the prestigious PKL trophy once again. ‘Parimatch News‘ brings you an in-depth analysis of the Dabang Delhi KC squad for the Pro Kabaddi Season 9.
Delhi had a great start to their PKL 8 campaign but lost the rhythm due to Naveen Kumar’s injury midway. They finished the league stage in the second position behind Patna Pirates with 75 match points from 22 games consisting of 12 wins, 4 ties and 6 defeats. However, the Dabang Fauj turned up huge in the playoff round and went on to orchestrate their first-ever PKL triumph.
The Delhi gaffer is on the dream run and holding no bars to stay on the top of the Kabaddi world. Earlier, he was honored with the prestigious Dronacharya Award from the Ministry of Sports for his outstanding contribution as a Kabaddi coach and then went on to bring PKL glory to the Dabang camp. However, the bigger challenge for him is to prolong his stay on the top as every other franchise is coming for him.
Squad
Raiders: Naveen Kumar Goyat, Ashu Malik, Manjeet Sharma, Suraj Panwar, Ashish Narwal
Defenders: Sandeep Dhull, Amit Hooda, Krishan Dhull, Ravi Kumar, Vishal Lather, Anil Kumar, Vinay Narwal, Monu Sharma, Deepak, Mohammad Litton Ali, Aakash Malik, Vijay Redhu
All-rounders: Vijay Malik, Reza Katiulinezhad, Tejas Patil
Raid Department
The future of Indian Kabaddi!
Naveen Kumar Goyat is the star of the Dabang Delhi roster and had a lion’s share in their PKL 8 triumph. The Services superstar finally put a full stop to his dreaded trophyless run and lifted the prestigious Pro Kabaddi League title last season. The defending champions retained the services of the 22-year-old who was also adjudged with the Most Valuable Player of the Season award in the last two editions.
On the other hand, Krishna Dhull has an ace option in the form of Vijay Malik to provide enough support to the strike raider Naveen. When Naveen was unavailable due to an injury midway through the season, Vijay stepped up to play the lead role and continued the triumphant run of Dabangs. His presence provides an assurance to the Capital-based franchise that raid points scoring will be on even if the Naveen Express is halted.
However, there’s still no clearance as to who will be stepping up to don the role of the third raider of this offensive unit. Ajay Thakur was designated for that responsibility in the previous season but a threatening injury washed out their initial plans. The youngsters Ashu Malik and Manjeet Sharma are the frontrunners after their cameo contributions to the title-winning campaign.
Defense Department
Dabangs showed immense trust in their raiding unit but went on to have a complete overhaul of the defensive department. The renowned corner pair of Amit Hooda and Sandeep Dhull has been brought to the Delhi roster to succeed the likes of Joginder Narwal and Sandeep Narwal. Both of them have established coordination with each other having played a couple of seasons for Jaipur Pink Panthers together.
It’s a homecoming for Sandeep as the Railways left-corner defender kick-started his PKL journey with this outfit in the third edition. The young left-cover Vishal Lather is another defender who moves out from Jaipur to join his former teammates at Delhi. Vishal will be accompanied by the veteran Railways cover defender Ravi Kumar whom they paid a whopping sum of 63.1 Lac for the acquisition.
Krishan Dhull is one of the rising stars who are said to be the next big thing and will be covering up for Amit Hooda at the right corner position. Meanwhile, the Dabangs also have an alternative option of the experienced Anil Narwal to provide backup support for Vishal Lather. They have ended the ties with the PKL-winning skipper Joginder Narwal however, his son Vinay Narwal is still there to carry forward the legacy.
Foreign Knights
The Iranian duo of raider Emad Sedaghatina and the defender Mohammad Malak were part of their foreign roster in the previous edition. However, both of them could not impress much in the given limited chances and weren’t bought back in the auction round. In his debut season, Malak scored only four tackle points from five appearances while Sedaghatina didn’t even get a single chance to play.
Players from the Golestan Province of Iran have always attracted high interest from the PKL franchises and Reza Katiulinezhad is the latest one from the region to join the PKL bandwagon. Reza is an energetic all-rounder who is capable enough to turn the game from difficult circumstances in no time. They secured the young Iranian’s services at the base price of 10 Lac, facing no competition from other franchises.
The second addition to the foreign core was the defender Mohammad Litton Ali from the neighbouring country Bangladesh. Liton plays in the right corner position and his presence provides more depth to the right side of the defense. He is an unknown commodity who is yet to break into the international circuit.
NYP Trump Cards
The torch has been passed
Ashu Malik, Krishan Dhull, Vinay Narwal, Manjeet Sharma and Deepak Singroha are the four NYP category players who will be once again seen in Dabang colours. Krishan and Ashu’s retention was the obvious one among them after their impressive breakout performance in the previous season. The 22-year-old Ashu was Delhi’s third most successful raider of the season scoring 51 raid points from 22 appearances.
Krishan is a young prospect whom Delhi would want at no cost. When Sandeep Narwal was shifted to the raiding role, he donned the right corner position and did a commendable job. He was part of the NK Academy side that clinched the K7 Haryana and also ended up as the top tackle points scorer of that tournament.
Suraj Panwar, Ashish Narwal and Vijay Redhu have been added as the newest promoted NYPs for the upcoming season. Among them, the Yuva Kabaddi Series starlet Ashish Narwal is the youngster to watch out for. He had the second-highest raid points in the inaugural edition of YKS and also led his side Periyar Panthers to the runners-up position.
Strongest Starting Seven
Naveen Kumar Goyat (Raider), Vijay Malik© (Raider), Ashu Malik (Raider), Vishal Lather (Left Cover), Ravi Kumar (Right Cover), Sandeep Dhull (Left Corner), Amit Hooda (Right Corner)