Here Is What Dabang Delhi KC Head Coach Rambir Singh Khokhar Says About PKL 10 Auction And Team Formation

India’s second most popular league Vivo Pro Kabaddi League will be conducted from 2nd December 2023. For this season 10 auction was held on 9th & 10th August 2023. Some teams have changed their coaches too. After the auction teams have been rebuilt. For the upcoming season some teams have started training camps.

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat (Telugu Titans) for Rs. 2.605 Crore), Mohammadreza Shadlu Chiyaneh (Puneri Paltan for Rs. 2.35 Crore), Maninder Singh (Bengal Warriors for 2.12 Crore), Fazel Atrachali (Gujarat Giants for Rs. 1.60 Crore) & Siddharth Desai (Haryana Steelers for Rs. 1 Crore) were the expensive players at the auction.

After the auction Team Khel Kabaddi had an exclusive conversation with Dabang Delhi KC Team coach Rambir Singh Khokhar. He gave his insights on upcoming PKL season, Delhi’s, training, strategy, auction insights & much more.

Questions and answers were as follows:

1) Are you happy with how the squad looks like after spending 2 days at auction & using many days strategies for it?

Ans: Yes. I’m 100% happy with the team. All out plans & strategies worked for us in the auction. Formation of team has been done well.

2) Naveen Kumar will be having support of Ashu Malik & Meetu Sharma. Also Manjeet is there. What do you think about this young raiding trio?

Ans: Absolutely it will be successful. 22 league matches will be there to play. For that we want 4 best raiders. Ashu Malik, Manjeet are equally good to Naveen Kumar.

3) In every season we get to see Naveen as a face of Delhi’s raiding department. Other two raiders supports him as secondary raiders. Is it going to change or remain the same?

Ans: It will be the same thing. Strike raider will be Naveen. Meetu Sharma & Ashu Malik will be his supportive raiders. They both are physically, mentally, technically are best.

3) We have seen in previous two seasons that over reliance on Naveen costs team a lot. What are your thoughts on this?

Ans: We have analysed the thing. We will solve it. There will not be any pressure on him.

4) There was an intense bidding war between your team and Telugu Titans for Iranian skipper Fazel Atrachali, as soon as the price went up to 91 lakh tea stopped bidding. Gujarat brought him. Do you think it could’ve been turned out fruitful buy for Delhi if they had continued the bidding?

Ans: Yes. But we did not have enough money for Fazel. Then we added Vishal Bhardwaj who recently won Asian Games 2024. He is also a good defender.

5) The team looks quite young and but little inexperienced in terms of defense like the last season. What do you think about it?

Ans: We have a great combination with talent and experienced players right from Indian Junior team & Senior team. Along with them, there are many talented players.

6) How do you see a defense combination of team? Who all are will be with Vishal Bhardwaj?

Ans: Yogesh Dahiya, Ashish Malik, who were part of Indian Gold medal winning team at Junior World Cup will make into starting seven. We’ve got many players from Indian Junior World Cup team.

7) Do you think that the team lacks experience?

Ans: Not really. Because there are players who have grabbed gold medals at Junior World Cup, National Games. Naveen, Vishal, Meetu, Ashu Malik, Manjeet all are experienced players. Young players has huge potential and fitness. They’ll get experience as the league processes. Our B team is also much stronger than the A team. Overall it is a well balanced team.

8) Is there any surprise element in the squad which will be groomed by the team for season 10?

Ans: It will be all our NYP players in the upcoming season.

9) In the last season Naveen had a lot of pressure due to captaincy. Somehow team managed to play the playoffs. But got failed. Do you think that if Naveen doesn’t captain the team, he can perform better?

Ans: We have analysed the reason of his pressure. We will work on it. In the upcoming season, he will be playing with no additional pressure.

10) What do Delhi fans should expect from the team?

Ans: Every team fans wants their team to win. As a coach I can say to our fans that we will qualify & lift that trophy once again.