With ‘Dubki King’ in the Squad UP Yoddhas look a formidable unit ahead of the PKL Season 8

– Ambrish Upadhyay

UP Yoddha, the team franchise that made history in PKL SEASON 8 auction by signing the “Record Breaker” Pardeep Narwal at record amount of 1.65 crore rupees. It was the highest bid made for any player in the history of Pro Kabaddi League.

UP Yoddha retained their captain Nitesh Kumar under Elite Retained Player category while Sumit Sangwan, Ashu Singh & Surender Gill under Existing New Young Players category.

UP Yoddha roped in Shrikant Jadhav (72 lakh) by exercising FBM card. The two overseas player bought in auction were Iran’s Md. Taghi (12 lakh) & Bangladesh’s Masud Karim (10 lakh) who was the part of team in PKL 7 also.
The raiding department now seems unstoppable by the inclusion of Pardeep Narwal.

Pardeep is the only raider in PKL to score more than 1000 raid points, he has scored 1160 raid points with 59 super 10 to his name. UP would be hoping some wonders by him in season 8. Pardeep will be the key player for UP Yoddha.
Shrikant Jadhav has scored 392 raid points so far, while Surender Gill who had a great debut season (PKL 7) have scored 71 crucial raid points.

The raiding trio will have to perform as a unit in PKL 8 to lead UP Yoddha to their maiden title victory.
Talking about the defense, Yoddha have retained their corner duo. Nitesh & Sumit were the most successful corner pair of PKL 7 scoring 152 tackle points combined.

Nitesh Kumar is the only player in PKL history to have century of tackle points in a single season. Nitesh has scored 222 tackle points in 67 PKL matches while the PKL 7 debutant Sumit has scored 77 tackle points. These two will have to play again as a unit to avoid the leakage of points.

Ashu Singh, Aashish Nagar, Gaurav Kumar, Gurdeep & Nitin Panwar will have to contribute in defense to reduce the pressure from Nitesh & Sumit.

UP Yoddha have made a balanced squad in the auction & are looking the strong contenders to win PKL SEASON 8.