PKL 2021 Auction Top Bids: Team Combination changes will benefit which team this Season?

– Saiprasad Kagne

PKL Auction, came to an end on August 31 where all the 12 teams tried their best to build strong enough squad. However, some franchises preferred to buy experienced players while other franchises invested more in youngsters.

In this article, we will have a look at top bids in 2 department i.e. Raiders, Defenders through an analysis.

Here, it is observed that across all days of auction these 3 players were the highest bids in raiding department. ‘Record Breaker’ Pardeep Narwal (165 lakhs) bought by UP Yoddha will definitely be their key player throughout the tournament, his presence in the team will boost the confidence youngsters a lot in terms of handling critical situations of the game.

On the other hand, ‘Bahubali’ Siddharth Desai (130 lakhs) bought by his previous franchise Telugu Titans to play as their frontline raider ahead of season 8. Expectations from him are huge for the team to replicate his previous performances again in upcoming season. Arjun Deshwal (96 lakhs) bought by Jaipur Pink Panthers to use his last season’s form in order to push them closer to the title.

Here, we can see that from defense department above players are the highest bids across all days of auction. PO Surjeet Singh (75 lakhs) bought by Tamil Thalaivas to use his huge experience of PKL and apply it to them in winning cause. Ravinder Pahal (74 lakhs) bought by Gujarat Giants for very similar reason as that of Surjeet Singh to share his experience with the incoming youngsters and lead the team as frontline defender.

Vishal Bhardwaj (60 lakhs) bought by Puneri Paltan as an growing player his expectations from the team would be to manage incoming youngsters and lead the team in order to help reaching closer to the title. Hence, this season his bunch of responsibilities are more which might affect his performance as well. As a result, all above players will be considered as key players for their respective teams.