PKL Auctions | What clicked and what didn’t – Jaipur Pink Panthers

05/03/2019

We started the series 'what clicked and what didn’t' after the end of the PKL auctions with Bengaluru Bulls and we are going to end this with the inaugural champions – Jaipur Pink Panthers. The team which was led by Captain Cool Anup Kumar last year has made some good changes for season 7.

Last season’s performance

Everything went against the Jaipur-based club in the sixth season of the Pro Kabaddi League under the leadership of Anup Kumar, who was not playing for U Mumba for the very first time in the history of the league. Despite his cool head and leadership nothing worked out well for the inaugural champions and to further compound that, veterans Sandeep Dhull and Mohit Chhillar at the two corners of their defensive unit were also quite average as far as tackles were concerned.

Anup didn’t go for a lot of raids last season and had to decide to stay away from the mat during the last few matches when Deepak Niwas Hooda took over the charge of the team, which was coached by Srinivas Reddy. The all-rounder was the only shining star in Jaipur’s dark sky as he was quite effective among all the raiders in the team. There were some good performances in patches by Nitin Rawal and Ajinkya Pawar as well in the raiding department for the Pink Panthers.

After a poor run in the initial passage of the game, Jaipur did put up a good show towards the end but it was too late for them to make an entry into the playoffs. With only six wins and 43 total points, the inaugural champs ended their PKL 2019 campaign at the fifth position on the Zone A points table.

Positive takeaways from the auction

Deciding to retain Deepak Niwas and Dhull was a very good decision by the franchise ahead of the auctions for the seventh edition of the league this year. Among the young players, they had decided to keep Ajinkya Pawar and Lokesh Kaushik with them for this season as well. Deepak can be used both as an all-rounder with his proven defensive skills at the left cover or can be played only as a raider giving him a position of left in. Dhull has been a proven left corner and brings a lot of experience on to the table in the Jaipur defence.

Amit Hooda was the biggest buy for the Panthers as he was picked up for a whopping Rs. 53 lakh at the auctions. After deciding to release someone like Mohit Chhillar, Amit’s addition is important for the team’s defence and he will have to better his previous year’s performance while coming into the Jaipur unit this year. Getting Deepak Narwal and Nilesh Salunke for 30.5 lakh and 23.5 lakh rupees would solve the raiders issue for the team which already has players like Pawar and Deepak Niwas from the last year’s squad. Sunil Siddhgavali takes the spot for the right cover in the defence for Rs. 20 lakh while Nitin Rawal might start at the cover position on the other side of the mat. The combination makes the team a balanced one ahead of the start of the season in 2019 while the players will have to make sure that they remain injury free in the entire duration of three months in the tournament.

Threats for next season

There are a few positions on the mat for which the team management will have to take some important decisions as there is no experienced specialised player for that position. The positions of left and right cover are important in this direction as they have all-rounders Rawal and Deepak Niwas who both can fit in in that position. Playing any one of them in that position will take away their importance of being a raider. So, this will be interesting to see whether the management goes with Rawal at the important position or they play Deepak Niwas as an all-rounder and not as their main raider.

Similarly, the right cover position will be mostly taken by Siddhagavali who, although, played in the previous season, was not that effective with the same role.

Again, the team will have to rely on Amit who was really rash with his tackle attempts for Tamil Thaliavas last season. With Siddhagavali and Amit at the right-hand side of the mat, the same end might be a bit weaker one as compared to the other side.

Jaipur Pink Panthers Squad

Deepak Niwas Hooda, Sandeep Kumar Dhull, Ajinkya Pawar, Lokesh Kaushik, Pavan TR, Sachin Narwal, Sushil Gulia, Amit Hooda, Deepak Narwal, Nilesh Salunke, Vishal Lather, Sunil Siddhgavali, Dong Gyu Kim, Malinda Chaturanga, Karamvir, Guman Singh