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Kabaddi
PKL 2021: Will these once star players step up their game in season 8?
The eighth season of PKL will bring an opportunity for the once star players to regain their prestigious status.
Will these wounded lions step up their game in PKL 2021?
PKL is the biggest stage of Kabaddi where players become stars overnight. Kabaddi players are rewarded with all kinds of fame after their successful Pro Kabaddi stints. Their star power earns them bids from franchises high as the sky.
Although we witnessed the downfall of many Pro Kabaddi players who used to rule the leaderboards at one time. Many players stuck in this transition phase thus failed to execute resurgence. The eighth season of PKL will bring another opportunity to these players to regain their prestigious status.
So let's have a look at three wounded lions of the Pro Kabaddi League who are ready to Roar!
3. Monu Goyat
Monu Goyat's breakout performance came in the fifth season where he formed a destructive alliance with Pardeep Narwal. Monu attracted the highest bid of 1.51 crore from Haryana Steelers with the captain's armband. It was the highest point of his career as he also made his India debut around the same timeline.
Monu Goyat registered 10 Super10s in 20 appearances for Haryana in the sixth season. Then UP Yoddha acquired his services for season seven where he had a career-worst Pro Kabaddi campaign. He joined UP having 364 raid points from the previous two seasons but managed to score only 70 points in 14 appearances for Yoddha.
Monu will don the green colours of Patna Pirates once again in the hope of getting back on track. But this time, he will be accompanied by Sachin Tanwar and Prashant Kumar Rai instead of megastar Pardeep Narwal.
2. Rishank Devadiga
In the absence of U Mumba's star raider, Rishank Devadiga emerged as the main raider from the third raider in season three. He was conferred with the 'Raider of the Season' award scoring 106 raid points in the third season. His efforts took U Mumba to the finals where they were defeated by might Patna Pirates.
Rishank was bought by UP Yoddha for a sum of 45.5 lakhs in their debut season. He had a successful debut season with UP Yoddha but his graph went downhill since then. Rishank went unsold in the first round of the auction but later Bengal changed their mind and bought him at the base price of 20 lakhs.
Rishank has 181 raid points under his name from the last two Pro Kabaddi seasons. It is evident that he'll have to fight for his place in the Starting7 of defending champions Bengal Warriors. He will receive tough competition from the likes of Ravindra Kumawat, Sukesh Hegde and Akash Pikalmunde to accommodate captain Maninder Singh.
1. Nitin Tomar
Nitin Tomar is famous for his nickname 'silent assassin' among the Pro Kabaddi circuit. He has garnered praise for his ability to earn raid points smoothly irrespective of the opponent. Nitin became a national hero when his triumphant Do-or-Die raid turned out to be the gamechanger against Iran in the finals of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup.
Nitin came back to Puneri Paltan in 2018 after having a successful one-off season with UP Yoddha as a captain. Where Tomar bagged 102 points including 4 Super10s in just 11 games. Injuries spoiled Nitin's season seven campaign with Puneri Paltan where the UP lad could score only 73 points from 15 appearances.
Paltan used an FBM card to reclaim his services at the auction price of 61 lakhs. The talisman raider is being handed over the captaincy ahead season eight which shows that he still got the back of Puneri Paltan management. Nitin will be looking forward to leading Paltan by example to redeem the franchise's trust. Nitin will also lead Pune's attacking banner alongside Rahul Choudhary, Pankaj Mohite, Pawan Kadian, Mohit Goyat and Victor Obiero.
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