Bengaluru Bulls need to think about this ahead of season 8 of Pro Kabaddi
– Ambrish Upadhyay
Whether it is IPL or PKL, the Bengaluru franchise never fails to amaze the fans by their
gameplays. After a long gap of two years, the most loved kabaddi league of the world made
it’s comeback by successful commencement of PKL SEASON 8 PLAYER AUCTION.
The PKL SEASON 6 champions BENGALURU BULLS retained the “High Flyer” Pawan
Sehrawat & the “Emerging Left Corner” Amit Sheoran under the “Elite Retained Player”
Category & surprised the Bulls army by releasing their captain Rohit Kumar who was not in
a good touch from past two seasons due to injuries. Bulls also released their most successful
defender of all time the “Bulldozer” Mahender Singh, who scored 61 tackle points in PKL 7.
STRENGTHS
Considering the positives first, raiding was never an issue to be worried about for Bulls under
the presence of Pawan who single handedly carried the raiding department for last 2 seasons.
In season 8 Pawan will be accompanied by his Indian Railways raiding partner Deepak Narwal
(26.5 lakhs rupees) & Chandran Ranjith (80 lakhs rupees).
This could be the tremendous raiding trio for Bulls , which can make the ways easier to clinch
their second PKL TITLE .
The presence of Banty & newly added GB MORE will also provide depth to the raiding
department.Bulls have included the Overseas raiders Abolfazl Maqsoudlou & Dong Geon Lee,
who have already proved their name by their game in the past seasons.
The raiding department looks pretty strong and balanced of bulls this season , just the entire
squad will have to make sure they don’t become over reliant upon Pawan Sehrawat yet again.
WEAKNESS
The defense unit of Bulls conceded more than 800 points in the season 7 (highest by any team), despite having the defensive trio of Mahender-Amit-Saurabh who scored more than 50 tackle
points each.
The trio might have performed their level best on personal scale, but as a unit they failed to
contribute at many occasions. The defense looks similar to previous season , the “Bulldozer”
Mahender will have to step up this season to lead the charge as he will be the most experienced
defender (in terms of matches played) of the side. Bulls have bought Mayur Kadam, the local
talent from Maharashtra who won Bronze medal in the 68th Senior Nationals & the veteran
right cover defender from Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman who can provide depth to the defense
side.
The defenders will have to ensure that they must play as a unit in order to control the leakage
of unnecessary points at crucial occasions .They must also take care that Pawan Sehrawat gets
to play freely this season.