PKL Auctions | What clicked and what didn’t – Haryana Steelers

05/01/2019

It has been two years for the team from Haryana in the Pro Kabaddi League now and after making it to the playoffs in their debut season, the Steelers failed to repeat the same in season 6. The state, which has produced the maximum number of kabaddi players, is yet to play a PKL final.

Last season’s performance

Haryana didn’t have the best of starts to their campaign in the sixth edition of the league last year as they were deprived of the services of their skipper and one of the finest left corner defenders Surender Nada, due to injury. Monu Goyat was handed over the responsibility of leading the side and that clearly reflected on his performance in a very negative way. Haryana ended their campaign at the bottom-most position on the Zone A points table with a total of 42 points from 22 matches. They managed to win only six games in the league stage of the tournament and failed miserably.

The biggest positive for them in the last season is the performance of youngster Vikash Kandola, who went to become the best raider of the Rambir Singh Khokar-coached side despite the presence of someone like star raider Monu in the team. They had a terrible defensive unit that was devoid of a proven player and the performance of the team dipped continuously in the due course of the tournament last year.

Positive takeaways from the auction

Before going into the player auctions, the Steelers appointed kabaddi legend Rakesh Kumar as their chief coach for the seventh edition of the league. The team had decided to retain youngsters Vikash and Kuldeep under the Elite Player Retention category while Vinay was also kept in the side in the New Young Player (NYP) category. By making sure that Vikash and Kuldeep being a part of the team they have sorted their main raider and left corner defender’s place before going on to the auction table even.

At the auctions, they spent the highest amount for another raider Prashanth Kumar Rai who had a good season with UP Yoddha last year. Rai was taken for an amount of Rs. 77 lakhs and is expected to be a good support for someone like Vikash. To compliment Kuldeep, Haryana have also bought Dharmaraj Cheralathan for a whopping 38.5 lakhs at the auction and his experience will come in handy at the crucial right corner position this season. K Selvamani is another positive that they will take from this year’s auction as he will be the third raider of the first starting 7.

Threats for next season

There are more threats to the team from the auction this season as there are many departments that have been left untouched by the Haryana-based side. Vikas Kale and Parveen will be the two cover defenders for them and both of them had an inconsistent season with Patna Pirates and Haryana Steelers respectively in season 6. In the left corner, Kuldeep is certainly inexperienced and after a great start replacing Surender last year, he failed to live up to the expectations. Again at the right corner, Cheralathan’s age will be a concern as he is already 44 and maintaining fitness throughout the long PKL season will be a huge challenge for the former U Mumba defender.

Haryana Steelers Squad

Kuldeep Singh, Vikash Khandola, Vinay, Prashanth Kumar Rai, Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Vikas Kale, Naveen, Ravi Kumar, K Selvamani ,Amir Mohammad Maleki, Tim Phonchoo, Vikram Khandola, Subhash Narwal