will the pair of Neeraj Kumar and Sunil create some magic in this PKL Season?

– Saiprasad Kagne

Neeraj Kumar, a right corner defender played only 2 seasons of PKL for Haryana Steelers and Patna Pirates respectively. Due to his commendable performance with Patna Pirates, he got retained for PKL 8. Sunil, again a right corner defender also played only 2 seasons of PKL but for same team i.e. Haryana Steelers. In his debut season itself, he displayed his potential and strengths.

From the above chart, we can see that Neeraj has played 22 matches for his team i.e. Patna Pirates. In PKL 5, he made his debut for Haryana Steelers and played total 17 matches despite given enough chances he wasn’t able to make most out of it. Thus, this might be the reason for his absence in PKL 6. However, in PKL 7 Neeraj made solid comeback to his PKL career with Patna Pirates and this time he was able to make plenty achievements out of it. In the last season, he scored 54 successful tackles, 59 tackle points, 5 super tackles, 4 high 5s, 41.22% tackle strike rate with an Average tackle points of 2.68. His retention for the Pirates will surely benefit in terms of lots of risk taking successful tackles.

Sunil has played 21 matches for his team i.e. Haryana Steelers of the tournament. He made his debut for Haryana Steelers in PKL 6 and fortunately got 22 matches to play. However, Sunil didn’t disappointed his team and its management by delivering one of the best performance by debutant in PKL history with 41 tackle points throughout the season. His performance got rewarded in PKL 7 with the retention by the team. In last season, he scored 54 successful tackles, 55 tackle points, 1 super tackles, 3 high 5s, 43.2% tackle strike rate with an Average tackle points of 2.62. In PKL 8, he will be the part of Patna Pirates and his partnership with Neeraj Kumar will again benefit their team in plenty of ways.