After the completion of the auction round, it seems like the Telugu Titans have the strongest squad among all the participants of the PKL 9. However, the Hyderabad-based franchise has a track record of somehow ending up away from the glory despite having so many elite names on the roster. Hence, ‘Parimatch News‘ brings an in-depth analysis of the Telugu Titans squad for the Pro Kabaddi Season 9.
The Titans had a forgettable campaign in the previous season where they finished at the bottom of the league stage standings. The Yellow could emerge victorious only on a single occasion throughout the season and could only fetch 27 match-points from 22 games. After registering four draw outcomes and a solitary victory, it was the worst campaign by a PKL franchise since the expansion of the league in Season 5.
A nightmare of a PKL 8 journey left the Telugu Titans authorities with no other option than to sack Jagdeesh Kumble from the head coach position. Kumble was replaced by the local gaffer Venkatesh Goud who was head coach of Rangareddy Raiders in the latest edition of the Telangana Premier Kabaddi. Meanwhile, the Mighty Manjeet Chhillar is set to start his coaching career as an assistant coach of this franchise.
Squad
Raiders: Siddharth Desai, Abhishek Singh, Monu Goyat, Rajnish Dalal, Ankit Beniwal, Vinay Redhu, Aman Kadian
Defenders: Surjeet Singh, Parvesh Bhainswal, Ravinder Pahal, Vishal Bharadwaj, Prince Bazzad, Mohammad Shihas, Vijay Tiwathia, Mohit Pahal, Nitin Deshwal, Palla Ramkrishna, Mohit Narwal
All-rounders: Adarsh T, Mohsen Maghsoudlou, Hamid Nader, K Hanumanthu, Ravinder
Raid Department
The reunion of the two former MumBoys
Offense department was the major reason behind Telugu’s disastrous run in the previous season where Sidharth Desai’s injury blew away the entire momentum of their campaign. The Titans management did a blunder by not having a backup when Desai got ruled out of the whole season and the other raiders were unable to fill the void of his absence. Hence having an appropriate depth in the roster was a priority of the Yellows at the auction table and the outcome also describes that they have done a fine job.
Siddharth had a great start to the previous season where he scored 34 raid points in just three games but a shoulder injury followed by surgery kept him out for the rest of the season. The ‘Bahubali’ has been bought back by the Hyderabad-based franchise to represent for the third season but this time at a base price of just 20 lakhs. The veteran raider Monu Goyat who played the Grand Finale of PKL 8 with Patna Pirates has been brought to the South for the first time in his PKL career.
Abhishek Singh is another youngster who used to be the strike raider of U Mumba but now will be seen in Telugu Titans colours. The Uttar Pradesh-based right raider was leading Mumba’s offensive unit over the past two seasons and fetched 339 raid points since the year 2019. We have seen Siddharth and Abhishek pairing up in Season 6 for U Mumba where they had a successful campaign together as the Titans management must be expecting them to reconcile it again.
Apart from the new faces, the young duo of Rajnish Dalal and Ankit Beniwal who starred in the last season will continue to represent the Yellow banner. Dalal featured in only 13 fixtures for the Titans but still ended up with an individual tally of 106 raid points. On the other hand, Beniwal who was having his breakthrough PKL campaign went on to become their top-scorer with 111 raid points from 21 appearances.
Defense Department
The defense of Telugu Titans is in safe hands!
Telugu was never considered a formidable defensive side as the defense always turned out to be their major weakness over the years. However, it seems like things are bound to change since the arrival of PKL’s all-time leading tackle points scorer Manjeet Chhillar as an assistant coach. They had a complete rehaul of their defensive line and are now standing with a unit consisting of four high-profile names who can outclass any other franchise on paper.
The left-corner defender Vishal Bharadwaj is back with Telugu Titans after spending a season with Puneri Paltan where he couldn’t perform up to his reputation. The 25-year-old Himachali was brought to the PKL stage by this franchise in Season 4 and had a four-season stint with them before moving out. Meanwhile, the right-corner position will be donned by Ravinder Pahal who is the fourth-highest scoring defender in the history of this league.
Surjeet is the second member of this Titans roster who is among the Top 5 all-time highest tackle-points scorers of the Pro Kabaddi League. The World Cup-winning right-cover has captained Puneri Paltan, Bengal Warriors and Tamil Thalaivas and is also currently leading the race to become the next captain of the Yellow Army. He will be accompanied by another renowned name Parvesh Bhainswal who has been released by the Gujarat Giants side after an association of four seasons.
Foreign Knights
The franchise is famous for accommodating renowned Iranian players in the past such as Meraj Sheykh, Abozar Mighani, Hadi Oshtorak, Farhan Rahimi etc. To the shock of Telugu fans, coach Jagdeesh Kumble avoided the Iranian players during the previous season and went for the South Korean raider Hyunsu Park and the Japanese defender Tetsuro Abe. However, the failure of Season 8 forced them to get back to their strength and once again bolster their foreign department with Persians.
Mohsen Maghsoudlou is the seventh highest total points scorer among foreigners in the history of this league having 92 raid points and 48 tackle points under his helm. The Iranian raiding all-rounder has been part of the PKL stage for the last four seasons and is also a regular on their National side. Mohsen is a familiar face for Telugu fans as he kick-started his Pro Kabaddi career in this franchise and also spent a couple of seasons with them before leaving for UP Yoddha in Season 7.
The briskly defensive all-rounder Hamid Nader Mirzaei was part of the Haryana Steelers roster and has been recruited by the Titans at the base price of 10 lakhs. Hamid caught the eyes of the Pro Kabaddi universe when he won the Silver medal honour with the Iranian national team at the 2018 Dubai Kabaddi Masters. The breakthrough point of his career came just a month after that tournament when he graced the gold medal podium of the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
NYP Trump Cards
The Hyderabad-based franchise is yet to announce its 2022 batch of New Young Players. The performance of youngsters who came through the ranks of NYP was the biggest takeaway for them in the previous season where everything seemed to go against their will. Hence the team management had no second thoughts while extending the stay of Palla Ramkrishna, Prince Bazzad and Muhammed Shihas for another season.
The left-cover defender Prince Bazzad broke into the national circuit after winning the gold medal with Chandigarh at Junior Kabaddi National Championship. He then went on to be part of the Khelo India Youth Games Bronze medal-winning Chandigarh U21 side before earning his maiden PKL call-up. He got the opportunity to feature in Telugu Titans Starting Seven at the final phase of league stages when they decided to drop the veteran C Arun and start the youngster.
Muhammed Shihas is one of the most promising young left-corners in the Pro Kabaddi League who just need the guidance of someone like Manjeet Chhillar to boom. He was brought to the first team when Sandeep Kandola got injured and the Kerala-based defender left a mark by scoring 20 tackle points in his debut season. Shihas is expected to provide backup support for Vishal Bharadwaj in case India International suffers any injury or rough patch during the season.
Strongest Starting Seven
Siddharth Desai (Raider), Abhishek Singh (Raider), Monu Goyat (Raider), Parvesh Bhainswal (Left Cover), Surjeet Singh (Right Cover), Vishal Bharadwaj (Left Corner), Ravinder Pahal (Right Corner)