PKL Auctions | Naveen Kumar is emerging star of India, says Krishan Kumar Hooda confirming the youngster’s retention
Ahead of the player auctions for the seventh season of the Pro Kabaddi League, Dabang Delhi KC coach Krishan Kumar Hooda has made it clear that Naveen Kumar will play for the team under the NYP category. Hooda called the raider as an emerging star of the country after his last year’s performance.
The player auctions for the upcoming seventh edition of the popular Pro Kabaddi League is going to start from Monday with all the 12 teams battling out on the table to get the big and talented names of the sport in their side. Same will be the case for Dabang Delhi KC as well. The side that qualified for the playoffs and finished fourth have decided to keep Joginder Narwal and Meraj Sheykh in the side for the next season. Along with that, they will also have the services of young Naveen Kumar. The 19-year-old raider took the league by storm with his excellent abilities in his debut season and picked up 172 raid points from 22 matches.
During an exclusive chat with SportsCafe, Delhi coach Krishan Kumar Hooda made it clear that the youngster will continue being a part of the squad under the “New Young Player” (NYP) category.
“Naveen is very talented and an emerging star for India. He has a very good commitment towards the team and can adjust
Speaking more about the NYP category and its impact on the league, Hooda said, “PKL has always been a platform for the young players to come forward and showcase their talent. For new and emerging talent, this retention policy will be more helpful. PKL has brought more professionalism into the game and it is having a great impact on the young players. The coming days are even going to be bigger and brighter for the sport of kabaddi. Kabaddi din
Joginder led the team from the national capital to the playoffs in the sixth season of the league. The senior pro was brilliant at the left corner as well and had played a major role in shaping the youngsters like Naveen Kumar and Chandran Ranjith last season. Sheykh is the other player who has been retained by the franchise as they have shown full faith on the Iran all-rounder to come good in the upcoming season. Sheykh performed well in the raids and his experience came handy for Delhi during their home matches last season.
“We have retained Joginder Narwal because he is someone who controls the team really well. He is an experienced player and as a captain, he had a brilliant season last year and performed well. Meraj Sheykh is a very good player and in five-six matches, he was really good and performed well in the raiding department. All the players have been retained according to their past performance and according to our requirements,” explained the Delhi coach.
The Dabang Delhi side had gone with the corner combination of Joginder and Ravinder Pahal in the previous season but this year they have released the right corner defender Pahal ahead of the auctions. When asked whether he will be interested in bringing The Hawk (as Pahal is called) back in the team from the auctions, Hooda replied, “We have to pick up a corner defender during the auction. We will keep an eye on all the players available at the auction. We will have a look at Ravinder and other players as well. Anyone who we think can contribute to our team, we will go after him.”
The team lacked a properly experienced raider in the 2018-19 season apart from Shabeer Bapu who also wasn’t up to the mark. All-rounder Sheykh was their most experienced man in raiding department which had Pawan Kadian, Ranjith and Naveen in it. Hooda has underlined the fact that they have to strengthen their raiding department in the next season and that is one thing which is in their mind.
“We are having in our mind to strengthen the raiding unit of our team. We will try our best to bring an experienced raider into the team ahead of the next season. That will be our focus in the auction and will try hard to get that,” Hooda said ahead of the auctions.
Going into the auctions, the teams will be making proper strategies regarding targeting a particular player and keeping the amount with them in mind as well. The coach is well supported by the franchise officials and team managers to build a strong team ahead of the auctions starting on Monday.
“We have made our strategy in all the meetings before the auction to go after which players. We are looking forward to filling all our positions. We will eye the good players in the auction that can fit our team. We have a budget of around 2
“Franchise owners, managers and senior officials are a part of the team making strategies ahead of the auction. They have been very helpful and it is a combined decision coming out of all the discussions with the team management. We are hopeful of making a good team, even better than the last season,” Hooda concluded.
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