Puneri Paltan is among the only few franchises that remained consistent with their performance throughout the PKL journey but were still not able to get their hands on the prestigious trophy.
They will be out at the grandest stage of the Pro Kabaddi League again to accomplish their ultimate aim of maiden glory. Hence, ‘Parimatch News‘ brings in-depth analysis of the Puneri Paltan squad for the Pro Kabaddi Season 9.
The Maharashtrian outfit had a disastrous start to the Season 8 campaign where they spotted themselves at the bottom of the standings in the initial stages. The big names were failing to perform up to their reputation and Anup’s all gameplans were backfiring one by one. Then a wake-up call somehow orchestrated their qualification to the playoff round but the Orange Stallions still failed to go past the eliminator clash.
The Paltan management has parted ways with the head coach Anup Kumar who was associated with this franchise for two years. The PKL-winning captain who is widely regarded as the ‘God of Kabaddi’ will no longer be sitting at the coach’s corner while his assistant Ravi Shetty is the new gaffer of Patna Pirates. BC Ramesh who won the seventh edition of PKL with Bengal Warriors is back in Pune to turn them into a title contender once again.
After a long association with UP Yoddha, Arjun Singh who served as an assistant coach in the previous season has finally parted ways with his home franchise. The team management replaced him with the three-time PKL champion Jeeva Kumar who was also part of the Yoddhas roster for a couple of seasons. General Jasveer Singh and his Yoddha army might have missed out on glory in the previous season but are determined to bounce back stronger than ever in the forthcoming edition.
Squad
Raiders: Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, Pankaj Mohite, Akash Shinde, Shubham Shelke, Aditya Shinde
Defenders: Fazel Atrachali, Sombir Gulia, Sanket Sawant, Abinesh Nadarajan, Balasaheb Jadhav, Alankar Patil, Rakesh Goyat, Badal Poriya, D Mahindra Prasad, Harsh Lad
All-rounders: Mohammad Nabibakhsh, Govind Gurjar
Raid Department
The Brothers of Destruction!
Pune had a star-studded raiding unit for Season 8 in the presence of Rahul Chaudhari, Nitin Tomar and Pawan Kadian. However, the game-plan of Anup Kumar to go with an experienced and well-acquainted raiding unit backfired as he had to turn towards the younger options. Then the youth department of Paltan did an exceptional job and stunned the PKL universe with their talent depth.
The emerging duo of Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat were the most shining stars of the PKL Season 8. Aslam and Mohit carried the raiding unit of the Maharashtrian outfit in the previous season and will continue to don the duties in the upcoming edition too. Aslam who was unknown to the PKL universe before 2021, stormed into the Paltan with his all-round skills and became their highest scorer by fetching 169 raid points and 20 tackle points.
Meanwhile, Mohit who comes from the famous Goyat clan was awarded the Emerging player of the season honour for his breakthrough performance. The energy of both of these youngsters will be accompanied by the composure of Mohammad Nabibakhsh who adds the experience element to their attack. Former Maharashtra vice-captain Pankaj Mohite who now represents Indian Railways and won the 69th Senior National title with them will be the part of Pune side for the straight third season.
Defense Department
The Iranian moves his sultanate from Mumbai to Pune
The defensive unit of the Orange Stallions initially turned out to be the weakest link as it cost them plenty of game points in the early stages. But when they got their rhythm on track, the same department played a pivotal role in their iconic comeback midway through the season. Pune bid adieu to their star corner duo of Vishal Bharadwaj and Baldev Singh who were brought to the camp at high prices.
Sombir Gulia who started the previous campaign as a backup to Baldev soon became their first choice for the right-corner position. In the presence of so many high-profile defensive names, the silent assassin emerged as their highest-scoring defender and also proved himself worth for retention. The arrival of Fazel Atrachali has strengthened the department to the fullest while the likes of Alankar Patil, Harsh Lad, Badal Poriya and Mahindra Prasad define their depth.
The Yuva Paltan duo of left-cover Sanket Sawant and the right-cover local lad Balasaheb Jadhav will be in the action for the first team once again. Abinesh Nadarajan who forced Bala to sit on the bench throughout the season has been retained by the franchise for his immense consistency. Sanket will be having tough competition from another NYP gem all-rounder Govind Gurjar who also plays in the same position.
Foreign Knights
Iranian Hadi Tajik and the Kenyan all-rounder Victor Obiero were part of the Pune foreign roster in the previous season. However, both of them failed to make any impressions as the franchise’s decision to not retain them ahead of Season 9. Defender Fazel Atrachali and the all-rounder Mohammad Nabibakhsh who were part of the Asian Games gold medal-winning Iran side are the newest overseas arrivals of Paltan.
Fazel wore the captain’s armband of the Iran team which defeated India in the semifinals to claim their first-ever continental golden honour. The left-corner defender has 368 PKL tackle points under his helm and is just 23 points away from Manjeet Chhillar’s tally to become the all-time highest-scoring defender. He is the most credible contender to become Pune’s next skipper after having such a decorated captaincy record.
The man who guided Bengal to their maiden PKL glory departed from the Warriors camp to join Fazel in the west. Mohammad Nabibakhsh was the first player to go under the hammer this season as Paltan placed the highest bid of 87 Lac. A technically versed raider who also dons the cover position to help his side to recover from the crisis will be the master key of the gaffer BC Ramesh.
NYP Trump Cards
Puneri Paltan franchise is widely admired by the PKL universe for its development system which has produced many of the current stars in the league. Every year a new batch of NYPs joins the main team all the way from Yuva Paltan and a few of them proceed to be the next big thing. A dashing raider Aditya Shinde and a robust right-corner defender Badal Poriya are the ones who will be the new flag-bearers of the Yuva Paltan side.
Right cover Abinesh Nadarajan and left cover Govind Gurjar who joined Paltan last season as NYPs will be sweating out in Orange colours. The 21-year-old Rajasthani defensive all-rounder Govind who was among the Top 5 tackle point scorers of the 68th Senior Nationals is still waiting for his turn to debut at this stage. Shubham Shelke is another NYP category player from the ranks of Yuva Paltan who will be seen in Pune kits once again.
Akash Shinde who previously made a cameo of nine raid points at a strike rate of 82% will be looking forward to more opportunities in this campaign. The skilful left raider has received high praises from the coaches who have monitored his talent closely, especially the head coach Anup Kumar. The 21-year-old Nashik boy made headlines when the highest scorer of the match where Maharashtra defeated Haryana in the semis to eventually claim the silver medal at the recently concluded Senior Nationals.
Strongest Starting Seven
Aslam Inamdar (Raider), Mohit Goyat (Raider), Mohammad Nabibakhsh (All-rounder), Sanket Sawant (Left Cover), Abinesh Nadarajan (Right Cover), Fazel Atrachali (Left Corner) Sombir Gulia (Right Corner)