Telugu Titans look for a revival after a forgettable last season
– Ambrish Upadhyay
Telugu Titans despite having big names like “Bahubali” Siddharth Desai, Vishal Bhardwaj, Abozar Mighani & Farhad Rahimi had a rough ending of their PKL 7 campaign.
Telugu Titans shown trust on their young guns by retaining Rakesh Gowda, Rajnish Dalal, Ankit Beniwal, Manish, Akash Choudhary & Aakash Arsul before PKL 8 auction, the young guns proved their worth on their appearances.
None of the big names including Siddharth Desai were retained which surprised the titans fans, but the management had some other plans in the auction.
The “Bahubali” Siddharth Desai was roped in the auction by FBM card at a huge amount of 1.30 crore rupees. Siddharth Desai scored 217 raid points with 10super 10s in PKL7. The presence of Bahubali will boost up the confidence of the Telugu Titans to the next level.
Telugu Titans have also bought Rohit Kumar (36 lakh) who was the captain of Bengaluru Bulls in previous seasons. This could be possibly a steal if Rohit will play up to his top level. Rohit has scored 670 raid points so far in PKL with 26 super 10s and carries experience of 91 PKL appearances which could be a positive sign for Telugu Titans.
Telugu Titans have also bought the local talent from Telangana G. Raju Reddy who is gold medalist of last junior nationals, he was also the top scorer for Telangana in 68th senior nationals.
Telugu Titans have also bought the Korean raider Hyun Su Park who is also the part of Korean national kabaddi team.
Talking about the defense, it looks quite unbalanced as there is lack of experience in the players bought. Telugu Titans have bought back the “Baby Faced Assassin” Sandeep Kandola (59.50L), the debut star of the PKL 2, who will be making his comeback after a long gap of 6 years.
The “Aggressive” Cover defender Surinder Singh (55 L) has also been included in the squad, Surinder has scored 174 tackle points so far with 7 High 5s.
The emerging Right Corner from Maharashtra Ruturaj Koravi (19.80 L) will also don the titans jersey in PKL 8.
The veteran cover defender C Arun will have to play up to his potential in order to stop the unnecessary leakage of tackle points.
The Titans have invested more than 1 crore in their defense unit (Surinder & Sandeep) just to stop the leakage of points.