The caravan of Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 will be moving to its Second Matchday this Saturday. The second matchday of the world’s biggest Kabaddi League will bring up three more action-packed ties between six of the strongest Pro Kabaddi units.
Bengaluru’s Shree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium which is the solitary venue for the first leg of the league stage will be hosting these three fixtures on the 8th of October 2022 from 7:30 PM onwards. After witnessing the opening day action, the remaining six franchises will also have a kick-off of their Season 9 campaign.
The runners-up of the previous season, Patna Pirates will be kick-starting their fourth title hunt while facing the dark horses Puneri Paltan in the opening fixture. Meanwhile, the tornado of Pawan Sehrawat will be storming on the Day 2 donning the Yellow and Blue colours of Tamil Thalaivas for the first time.
Match 4: Patna Pirates vs Puneri Paltan
Aslam Inamdar is eyeing to extend his purple patch furthermore
The Green Pirates from the land of Patliputra made their fourth Pro Kabaddi final appearance in the previous season but could not maintain their record of winning every Grand Finale they featured.
Patna missed out on their fourth PKL glory from the shortest distance after getting defeated by Dabang Delhi in the finals of Season 8. Meanwhile, Puneri Paltan staged an unforgettable comeback after qualifying for the playoff round despite being among the bottom two during the mid-season.
The Bihar-based franchise has always turned up with all guns blazing when it comes to facing Puneri Paltan at the grandest stage of Kabaddi. The two Pro Kabaddi giants have faced each other 17 times to date and the head-to-head count of the rivalry currently stands 13-2 in the favor of the Green side. The two league stage encounters of the previous season were also won by the three-time PKL champions.
In the recent turn of events, all 11 Iranian players who were supposed to take part in Season 9 have returned to their homeland due to Visa issues. The two franchises who are squaring off in this fixture have conceded a major blow from the news as the likes of Fazel Atrachali, Mohammadreza Shadloui and Mohammad Nabibakhsh who were their main players, won’t be part of the initial fixtures.
The high-flyer raiding all-rounder Aslam Inamdar is rumoured to be the stand-in captain of Paltan in the absence of Sultan Fazel. Despite the absence of two of their key foreigners, the Paltan is still the favourite to win this contest courtesy of the current form of their other star players.
Predicted Starting Seven
Patna Pirates: Sachin Tanwar, Rohit Gulia, Vishwas Gowda; Sajin Chandrasekar, Neeraj Kumar (C); Thiyagrajan Yuvraj, Sunil Narwal
Puneri Paltan: Aslam Inamdar (C), Mohit Goyat, Pankaj Mohite; Sanket Sawant, Abinesh Nadarajan; Badal Poriya, Sombir Gulia
Match 5: Gujarat Giants vs Tamil Thalaivas
The Giants had a forgettable campaign in the previous season where they failed to finish among the Top 6 despite having a steady start. As part of the consequences, the Ahmedabad-based franchise will now be helmed by a new authority under the leadership of the legendary Services coach Ram Mehar Singh. Another attempt of the Thalaivas to make it to the knockout round crashed out as they remain the only PKL franchise with no playoff appearances.
Both of the teams were included in the Pro Kabaddi roster from the fifth edition onwards and have faced each other only eight times. The head-to-head record stood akin to 2-2 before the start of the previous season where the Giants took the lead and brought it on 4-2. Gujarat edged past the Thalaivas in a last-minute thriller during their first encounter of Season 8 and then went on to replicate the feat to complete their first-ever double on the counterparts.
The most expensive player in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League, Pawan will be in action against Gujarat with a record-breaking price tag of 2.26 crore. The superstar assailant loves to play against the team which was his home for the 2017 edition during the early stages of his career.
The newly appointed skipper of the Giants, Chandran Ranjith will be making his captaincy debut against the franchise from his home state Tamil Nadu. Gujarat’s defensive department will have to trample down the Tamil raiding forces in order to extend their claim on the first three match points of the season.
Predicted Starting Seven
Gujarat Giants: Rakesh Sungroya, Chandran Ranjith (C), Mahendra Ganesh Rajput; Arkam Shaikh, Young Chang Ko; Rinku Narwal, Baldev Singh
Tamil Thalaivas: Pawan Kumar Sehrawat (C), Ajinkya Pawar, Himanshu Yadav; Mohit Jakhar, M Abhishek; Sahil Gulia, Sagar Rathee
Match 6: Bengal Warriors vs Haryana Steelers
All eyes are on the Bengal skipper Mighty Mani!
The former Gujarat Giants coaching duo of Manpreet Singh and Neer Gulia will now be seen marching the banner of the Haryana Steelers. The franchise which represents the household of Kabaddi fell short of just a couple of points to ensure their consecutive playoff qualification at the consummation of the Season 8 league stage.
The seventh edition champions Bengal Warriors led by Maninder Singh could not even put up a tough fight to defend their title and thus went through significant changes in management before this season.
Haryana has a history of dominating their Blue counterparts despite the fact that the Warriors have enjoyed more success since their breakout at the PKL stage. The Steelers have emerged victorious on five out of six occasions when they shared the battlefield with the Kolkata-based outfit. A 12-point triumph in the trophy-winning campaign of the Warriors remains their only victory over the Dhakad Boys.
Bengal gaffer K Bhaskaran has accommodated his lead knight Maninder Singh with elite raiding names of Shrikant Jadhav and Deepak Hooda. On the other hand, the veteran Joginder Narwal who lifted the Season 8 trophy with Dabang Delhi has been chosen to lead his home franchise.
Haryana will be stepping out for their opening fixture of the season in the absence of their first-choice right-corner option Amirhossein Bastami. It will be the battle between the young unit of Haryana and the experienced battalion of Bengal and the team which will be able to showcase their temperament for 40 minutes, will end up opening their ninth edition’s win account.
Predicted Starting Seven
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh (C), Shrikant Jadhav, Deepak Niwas Hooda; Parveen Satpal, Ashish Sangwan; Surender Nada, Shubham Shinde
Haryana Steelers: Manjeet Dahiya, K Prapanjan, Meetu Sharma; Jaideep Dahiya, Mohit Nandal; Joginder Narwal (C), Ankit Dhull