PKL Auctions | What clicked and what didn’t – U Mumba
U Mumba has always been a team with a huge fan base behind them and from the first season, established themselves as one of the teams to be feared. However, there has been only one occasion when the team has managed to clinch the title. Now, can they do it for the second time this season?
Last season’s performance
U Mumba had one of the finest runs in the PKL last season with some terrific performances from the very first game. Siddharth Desai burst onto the scene in the sixth season and quickly gave Mumba the X factor that it had lacked in the last couple of seasons. As far as defence was concerned, they had Fazel Atrachali, who made all the difference in their favour from his left corner position last season, along with Rohit Rana and Surinder Singh as the covers. But with Desai going down due to injury, the raiding department failed to provide ample support to the defence that was dominating most of their games. This eventually resulted in the team going into the playoffs with a total of 86 points from 22 games - second in Zone A behind Gujarat Fortunegiants. What this meant was that they had just one chance in the playoffs and, with Desai still not a 100%, they failed terribly against UP Yoddha in the eliminator to bow out.
The team from India’s financial capital was coached by Iranian Gholamreza Mazandarani last season and they had the Iranian style of defending with Fazel being the leader of the pack. U Mumba had Dharmaraj Cheralathan at the right corner to support and a good bunch of young Indian raiders as the second and third ones after Desai in the team last year.Â
Positive takeaways from the auction
Ahead of the much awaited auctions, U Mumba had decided to retain their last season’s skipper Fazel Atrachali along with cover defender Rajguru Subramaniam and raider Arjun Deshwal. They have also kept Surender Singh in the team in the New Young Player (NYP) retention along with Anil, Gaurav Kumar and Mohit Baliyan. The biggest buy for the team was getting all-rounder Sandeep Narwal for a price of Rs. 89 lakh. His presence at the right corner of the defence will give the team a good corner combination with the skipper at the other end of the mat. He has the experience and can be an ideal replacement for Cheralathan who was at the same position in the previous edition.
After releasing Siddharth Desai for the season and not even going all-out for him at the auctions, Mumba got raiders Rohit Baliyan, Dong Geon Lee, Athul MS and Abhishek Singh at the auctions for 35 lakh, 25 lakh, 20 lakh and 10 lakh rupees respectively. They have a good bunch of raiders with them with players like Abhishek and Baliyan, who already have played for the franchise, leading the unit in season 7. Lee adds the Korean flavour to the team with his agility and flexibility that we might see as the season progresses.Â
 © PKLThreats for next season
Not having a good frontline raider might be a threat for the team in the upcoming season. Although they have a bunch of raiders in the side who had done well last year, none of them played as the first raider for their respective teams. Abhishek and Baliyan both played as the second and third choice raiders with Desai in the U Mumba team last year while Lee didn’t get a lot of games to play for the Fortunegiants as well. Athul MS was in the Thalaivas which had Ajay Thakur, Sukesh Hegde and Jasvir Singh which made his chances of making an impact scarce. So, it will be interesting to see what kind of raiding unit the new coach Sanjeev Baliyan will go with this year.
The team, which has settled its corner and right cover positions ahead of the start of a fresh season, will have to put faith on either Korean player Young Chang Ko or young Indian Harendra Kumar for the important position. Â
U Mumba Squad
Fazel Atrachali, Rajaguru Subramanian, Arjun Deshwal, Anil, Gaurav Kumar, Mohit Balyan, Surender Singh, Sandeep Narwal, Rohit Baliyan, Dong Geon Lee, Athul MS, Ajinkya Rohidas Kapre, Young Chang Ko, Abhishek Singh, Vinoth Kumar, Harsh Vardhan, Harendra KumarÂ
SportsCafe’s starting 7
Centre – Abhishek Singh
Left in – Rohit BaliyanÂ
Right in – Athul MS
Left corner – Fazel AtrachaliÂ
Right corner – Sandeep Narwal
Left cover – Young Chang Ko
Right cover – Surender Singh
