Re-energised with a youthful squad, Puneri Paltan look to go one better and clinch PKL title in Season 10

Despite missing out on lifting the trophy in the final by a slender margin last year, Puneri Paltan were one of the most dominant teams in Pro Kabaddi Season 9. They will be looking to have a similar campaign in the upcoming PKL season and go one better than last time around in pursuit of their maiden Pro Kabaddi title.

Puneri Paltan’s management and head coach BC Ramesh decided to retain nine players ahead of the landmark 10th PKL edition. The list of retained players includes names like Abinesh Nadarajan and Gaurav Khatri from the Elite Retained Players (ERP) category.

Sanket Sawant, Pankaj Mohite, Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat and Akash Shinde were retained from the Retained Young Players (RYP) category, whereas Badal Singh and Aditya Shinde were retained from the Existing New Young Players category. The Season 10 Player Auction also saw Puneri Paltan add plenty of quality players to their squad.

Young Guns in Offence

The biggest strength for Puneri Paltan in the previous season were their raiders and they have retained the same set of players for their raiding department. Last year, the trio of Aslam Inamdar, Akash Shinde and Mohit Goyat was unstoppable at times for the Season 9 runner-ups. Akash Shinde was the top scorer for the side in attack with 139 raid points, including five Super Raids and five Super 10s.

Aslam Inamdar (138 raid points) and Mohit Goyat (120 raid points) also showed their potential through top class raiding in the last campaign. In attack, Puneri Paltan have also got the likes of Pankaj Mohite and Aditya Shinde who combined for 72 raid points last year and they will be eager to make their presence felt for the team in the season ahead.

Settled Defensive Unit

Defensively, Puneri Paltan have got the likes of Abinesh Nadarajan and Sanket Sawant who did a good job for their team last year. Abinesh amassed 34 tackle points, including two Super Tackles and a High 5 while his partner Sanket Sawant amassed 30 tackle points in PKL Season 9.

Puneri Paltan also roped in all-rounder Mohammadreza Chiyaneh for ₹2.35 crore at the Season 10 Player Auction and a lot will be expected of the Iranian. Chiyaneh was the second best defender in the previous PKL edition with 84 tackle points, including 10 Super Tackles and six High 5s. He also scored the most tackle points (89) in Season 8 in what was a breathtaking debut PKL campaign for the Iranian.

Meanwhile, Gaurav Khatri who made his Pro Kabaddi debut with Puneri Paltan in Season 9 will be keen to have a bigger say on his team’s fortunes in the upcoming campaign. He amassed 20 tackle points as well as a raid point in his first PKL campaign and will be hoping to kick on in the landmark 10th season.

Head coach BC Ramesh has a good crop of young players in the Puneri Paltan squad and the prospect of the talented young pair of Aslam Inamdar and Mohammadreza Chiyaneh playing together for the first time in PKL history is sure to get kabaddi fans excited.

With so much potential in a youthful squad, BC Ramesh will be hoping that his players can translate their potential into results on the mat as Puneri Paltan target the elusive PKL trophy which was a whisker away from them last year.