Pro Kabaddi League 2019: Bengal Warriors hopeful of ending trophy drought

Bengal Warriors, the perennial underachievers in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League will be looking to finally end their title drought in the upcoming season of the tournament. The balanced squad of the Kolkata-based franchise will help them fight for the title in season seven.

Retention, auction and personnel changes

The team retained its star player Maninder Singh along with Baldev Singh. They replaced Korean raider Jang Kun Lee with the most expensive foreign buy in the auction, having bought Iranian all-rounder Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh for Rs 77.75 lakh. Their hopes will also rely on Jeeva Kumar, who was bought for a relatively lower price of Rs. 31 Lakhs. BC Ramesh, who was the assistant coach of the champion Bengaluru side in the last season, has joined Bengal Warriors as the head coach ahead of the upcoming season of PKL.

Key Players

The franchise was reliant on Maninder Singh in the previous season, but the purchases of experienced players like Sukesh Hegde and K Prapanjan, who have been successful for their former Pro Kabaddi franchises in the past, will ease off the for the team. Prapanjan was impressive for Tamil Thalaivas in season five and Hegde has been playing the league since its inception and reached the final with the Gujarat Fortune Giants as their captain in season five. The defence will be bolstered by the addition of Jeeva Kumar. Jeeva was a part of U Mumba’s title-winning side in season two. He played for the UP Yoddhas in the previous season.

Season six preview

The Bengal Warriors finished 2nd on the points table in Zone B, due to lack of consistency in the latter stages of the league stage and lost the Eliminator to Dabang Delhi and ended their hopes of reaching the Final for the first time in the franchise’s history. The team will be hopeful of putting together a spirited performance and win the title for the first time.