The action-packed saga of the ninth edition of PKL comes to an end as the inaugural champions Jaipur Pink Panthers finally get their hands back on the trophy after eight years. It is time to recall the fantastic action of Kabaddi we witnessed over the past 72 days and 137 matches across four different venues. Hence, Parimatch News brings you the Dream Team of the 7 best players of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9.
BC Ramesh (Coach)
Puneri Paltan
The Karnataka-based gaffer staged the turnaround of the Puneri Paltan side and turned them into prime contenders for the PKL trophy. He was the chief architect behind the wonderful Season 9 campaign of the Maharashtrian outfit as his tactics and coaching approach played a key role in their final journey.
Despite the absence of star Iranian players in the initial stages and injuries of Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat, the Orange Stallions still made it to the Grand Finale under his guidance. However, the former Arjuna Awardee Indian International who has already achieved the Pro Kabaddi glory with Bengaluru Bulls and Bengal Warriors missed out on his third trophy.
Arjun Deshwal (Raider)
Jaipur Pink Panthers
Arjun ruled the offensive charts of PKL 9
The 23-year-old youngster wrote off the failure of Jaipur Pink Panthers in the previous season by guiding them towards their second Pro Kabaddi triumph. Arjun was awarded the honor of Most Valuable Player of the Season for his vital contribution as the strike raider of the Rajasthan-based franchise.
The Uttar Pradesh-born assailant topped the individual raid points tally after bagging 296 points and 17 Super 10s from 24 appearances at an astonishing average of 12.33 per match. He also scored 5 touches and a solitary bonus point on the night of the Grand Finale where other raiders were craving for breakthroughs.
Bharat Hooda (Raider)
Bengaluru Bulls
The Haryana-based raider who played the supporting role in the previous season broke the headlines overnight to emerge as the new raiding face of the Bengaluru side. Hooda finished second in the individual raiding charts with 279 raid points in 23 matches.
Bharat’s groundbreaking performance in his breakthrough campaign earned him the Raider of the Season award despite trailing behind Arjun Deshwal in the raiding charts. He single-handedly turned the tides for his side throughout the season on multiple occasions, especially with his signature moves like running hand-touch and escape.
Naveen Goyat (Raider)
Dabang Delhi
The defending champions may have failed in their title-defense season however, their skipper was able to deliver another top-notch individual campaign. He experienced many highs and lows throughout Season 9 as a Delhi skipper but the Services sensation stayed consistent with his offensive prowess.
Naveen completed a hat-trick of scoring 200+ raid points in three straight PKL seasons and also overpowered his previous edition tally of 207 points. The two-time MVP award-winning raider fetched 254 raid points and brought his career tally of Super 10s to 58 at the end of the ninth edition.
Sunil Kumar Malik (Captain & Right Cover)
Jaipur Pink Panthers
After a series of failures in leadership roles, Sunil finally achieved the first achievement of his Pro Kabaddi career while donning the captain’s armband. The Railways cover-defender who was the losing captain of the Season 6 finals with Gujarat Giants brought Jaipur’s title drought of seven seasons to an end.
Despite having a rough start to his captaincy spell with the Pink Panthers, Malik firmly occupied the fourth position in the tackle points leaderboard with 64 points from 23 appearances. The Jaipur skipper scalped 5 tackle points and a solitary raid point at a tackle strike rate of 100% and was also adjudged Player of the Final for leading them towards glory with an example.
Vishal Lather (Left Cover)
Dabang Delhi
The Dream Team of the Season features another youngster who was considered an unknown commodity before the commencement of this season and suddenly broke into the limelight. Lather returned to the Capital-based franchise after spending two seasons with the Pink Panthers and emerged as Delhi’s most successful defender of the season.
Vishal was the only left-cover defender who made it to the Top 10 of highest-scoring defenders of Season 9. He finished seventh in the list of most successful defenders after scalping 58 tackle points along with 3 High 5s under his helm.
Saurabh Nandal (Right Corner)
Bengaluru Bulls
Ever since his breakout at the grandest stage of Kabaddi, Saurabh has proved himself as one of the most consistent defenders in the modern-day era of PKL. The Haryana-based right-corner defender made it to the Top 3 most successful defenders for the consecutive seasons.
Nandal once again proved why he is regarded as the gaffer Randhir Singh Sehrawat’s most trusted defender over the years. He delivered his PKL career-best performance in this edition by scoring a whopping total of 72 tackle points at an average of 3 in 24 appearances for the Red and Blacks.
Ankush Rathee (Left Corner)
Jaipur Pink Panthers
Ankush who is undoubtedly the biggest find of the season is the third representative from the Jaipur Pink Panthers camp into the Dream Team of the season. The debutant left-corner defender topped the tackle points charts and also had possession of the prestigious Orange Armband throughout the season.
There was a two-way combat between him and Mohammadreza Shadloui of Patna Pirates for the Defender of the Season award which was eventually clinched by Rathee. Then the ONGC product went on to equalize the incredible record of the Iranian Prince for scoring the most number of tackle points (89) in a maiden Pro Kabaddi season.
Substitutes: Narender Kandola (Tamil Thalaivas), Maninder Singh (Bengal Warriors), Parvesh Bhainswal (Telugu Titans), Rinku Sharma (U Mumba), Mohammadreza Shadloui (Patna Pirates)