With a well-balanced squad, Patna Pirates will look to maintain their dominance in vivo PKL

Riding on three championship trophies, the most successful team of vivo Pro Kabaddi will be gearing up to hunt yet another one this Season. Patna Pirates fell short by a whisker last season for their fourth title. Here is an analysis of how the Season 9 unit looks for the Bihar-based team.

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The Attacking Trio

The Pirate Hamla was ruthless last season right from the onset and the team finished as table-toppers with 16 wins in the League Stage. A decisive factor behind this was Sachin who in 10 of their 22 games was the team’s top-scorer including the final. The attacker from Rajasthan was retained by using the FBM card for ₹81 lakhs after aggressive bidding. This will now be his fifth season at the vivo Pro Kabaddi and brings more than 600 (605) raid points against his name.

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Another player who is touted to make waves for Patna Pirates is Rohit Gulia. The Haryana Steelers import was picked for his base price of ₹30 lakhs. With 292 career raid points in vivo Pro Kabaddi, he is now closing in on the milestone of 300 points. Patna Pirates will also rely heavily on the services of Monu who’ll be playing his third consecutive season for the team.

Another special talent on the roster would be the Kenyan attacker, Daniel Odhiambo. This should be a memorable season for him as last year he played a solitary game which was against Dabang Delhi K. C. wherein he secured two raid points.

Dependable Defence

The biggest name to lead the Pirates in this department is undoubtedly Mohammadreza Chiyaneh. The Iranian was the most successful defender in Season 8 with 89 tackle points making him the Defender of the Tournament. Patna Pirates rewarded this by retaining him.

Sunil at the right corner will be crucial in the lineup as well. The team used their second FBM card to secure him at a bargain of ₹21.50 lakhs. Sajin Chandrasekar and Neeraj Kumar who will be playing their second and third consecutive seasons for the franchise were retained too. The duo collectively has 148 total raid points to bring to the table. In fact, Neeraj Kumar’s leadership skills will be on display as he was the team’s vice-captain in the previous edition.

Under the guidance of new coach Ravi Shetty, the Pirates will look to go all guns blazing to maintain their dominance.

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