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Kabaddi

Pro Kabaddi: Dabang Delhi bank on star raiding trio for title defence - Preview, Squad, All you need to know

All you need to know about Dabang Delhi in Pro Kabaddi League 2022.

Pro Kabaddi: Dabang Delhi bank on star raiding trio for title defence - Preview, Squad, All you need to know
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Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 Champions Dabang Delhi KC

By

Pritish Raj

Published: 19 Sep 2022 3:52 PM GMT

India's second most watched league Pro Kabaddi League is back with its 9th edition from October 7th, 2022.

After an auction which saw records breaking left, right and centre, all the 12 franchises are having a new look from the change in players to coaching personnel.

We take a look at how champions Dabang Delhi line up for the upcoming season.

PKL 8 Review

PKL 8 finished with Dabang Delhi winning their maiden title after defeating three-time champions Patna Pirates in a tightly-fought encounter.

Delhi had a unique combination last year with a presence lot of senior names such as Manjeet Chillar, Ajay Thakur, Jeeva Kumar and Sandeep Narwal in the lineup who aided Naveen Kumar and Vijay in their quest for a maiden title.

PKL 9 - Squad Changes

Krishan Hooda and his team went into the auction with a strategy of building a much younger team which is different compared to the previous season. Delhi has assembled a new-looking squad with a blend of youth and experience.

After retaining the star raider Naveen, Ashu Malik and previous season's hero Vijay Malik, Delhi's raiding unit will be more or less similar compared to last season.

They have added the experience of Ravi Kumar, Sandeep Dhull and Amit Hooda in their defence. Vishal Lather also comes with decent experience. They already have young defender Krishan Dhull from last season.

Youngsters such as Ashish Narwal, Suraj Panwar, Aakash, and Tejas Patil are a new addition to the team along with two foreigners Md. Liton Ali and Reza Katoulinehzad.

Dabang Delhi Full Squad for PKL 9

Retained Players- Naveen Kumar, Vijay Malik, Vinay Kumar, Krishan Dhull, Ashu Malik, Dipak, Manjeet, Suraj Panwar, Ashish Narwal, and Vijay.

Auction Buys- Sandeep Kumar Dhull, Vishal Lather, Md. Liton Ali, Reza Katoulinezhad, Amit Hooda, Anil Kumar, Ravi Kumar, Aakash, Tejas Maruti Patil, and Monu.

Dabang Delhi PKL 9 Preview

Strength- Coach Krishan Hooda has made a good team by strengthening the areas he needs. With the departure of Manjeet Chillar, Sandeep Narwal and Joginder Narwal, Delhi needed a solid defence. The new corner combination of Amit Hooda and Sandeep Dhull is capable of destroying any raiding unit in PKL. Both Amit and Sandeep share more than 500 tackle points among them.

Ravi Kumar brings the much-needed experience in the defence cover area for Delhi. It will be interesting to see who is paired with him- Vishal Lather or Krishan Dhull.

The raiding trio of Naveen, Vijay and Ashu Malik has played together and it looks settled more than ever with Naveen leading the lineup and Vijay with all the experience.

Weakness- One of the biggest problems Dabang Delhi have is a lack of quality backup. Delhi has youngsters as backup and none of them is tested in the Pro Kabaddi League setup.

Among raiders, Manjeet has played 5 games before and names like Suraj, and Ashish are yet to be tested. Delhi will miss the services of someone like Neeraj Narwal from last season who stepped up with crucial points in absence of Naveen.

Another problem Delhi has is the lack of all-rounders. While the squad is loaded with twelve defenders, they only have three all-rounders with two of them being debutants.

The lack of all-rounders means Vijay Malik has to play every game which can be difficult in a long season and this might come back to haunt Delhi.

Despite these small gaps, Dabang Delhi has a formidable lineup with loads of experience in both departments and is certainly looking to start their title defence strongly.

Dabang Delhi Predicted 7 for PKL 9

Amit Hooda (Right Corner), Sandeep Kumar Dhull (Left Corner), Naveen Kumar (Right In), Ashu Malik (Left In), Ravi Kumar (Right Cover), Vishal Lather (Left Cover) and Vijay (Center).

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