Pro Kabaddi 10: Takeaways from First Leg of the 10th Season

The tenth season of the Pro Kabaddi League started in the city of Ahmedabad which is the home of the franchise Gujarat Giants. The tournament has returned to the caravan format with all franchises hosting one leg in their home city.

The tournament started with Gujarat Giants led by Iranian maverick Fazel Atrachali taking on Telugu Titans led by Indian star Pawan Sehrawat.

Gujarat Giants opened the tournament with a win over Telugu Titans starting their winning streak which was halted in the last match by Patna Pirates.

The Bridge looks at the key takeaways from the first leg of the tournament.

Telugu Titans and their horrendous form

When Telugu Titans broke the bank in the PKL Season 10 auction to buy Indian captain Pawan Sehrawat for a whooping 2.6 crore INR, it looked like their fortunes would change after a few disappointing seasons.

Although, if the first two games are to be considered, Telugu Titans are still suffering the same fate of losing games in the worst ways possible.

In the opening game against Gujarat Giants, Telugu Titans lost the game despite leading for the majority of the game after Sonu Jaglan produced a five-point raid for Gujarat.

Patna Pirates mauled them in the second game with a big win of 22 points.

While it has been just one week, Telugu Titans need to fix a lot of things and the most important of them is the mindset. With a leader like Pawan at their helm, they will look to pick up from the next leg in Bengaluru.

Patna Pirates- The All-Round Team

In the past few seasons, Patna Pirates have been known to work as a well-oiled machine without much star power. The team assembled by Ram Mehar Singh in season eight is one of the most dangerous teams in PKL history.

The franchise followed a similar strategy this year and picked up some young guns while relying on their key players Neeraj and Sachin Tanwar.

Three-time champions have started the tournament with two consecutive wins and in their second win over table-toppers Gujarat Giants, Patna's top scorer was young raiders M Sudhakar with six points with every player contributing.

If this team manages to sustain the pressure of the crunch moments, they can be one of the top contenders for the title.

Rise of young raiders

With more than ten games being played in the season, the young raiders from different teams have impressed everyone.

On the top of the list is Sonu Jaglan of Gujarat Giants. The young raider came up with the first big raid of the tournament when he took out five Telugu Titans defenders in the opening game to start the comeback.

Building on his fantastic performance, Sonu has scored 33 raid points in four games.

U Mumba's Amirmohammad Zafarnadesh was started by coach Gholamreza in their opening game and he scored a super 10 to register a victory over UP Yoddhas.

Similarly, Patna has M Sudhakar and Sandeep Kumar who are supporting Sachin Tanwar.

With just twelve matches being played, it is too early to predict anything but at the moment, Gujarat Giants, Patna Pirates, and Puneri Paltan look formidable with the style of Kabaddi they are playing.