PKL 2019: One player each eliminated team may release before next season
The league stage of Pro Kabaddi League 2019 is over as the tournament will now enter its playoffs stage. The organizers had tweaked the format of the tournament for this season as they decided to have a single pool of 12 teams instead of dividing them into two zones.
Dabang Delhi K.C., Bengal Warriors, U Mumba, Haryana Steelers, U.P. Yoddha and Bengaluru Bulls have emerged as the top six teams of the season and one of these franchises will take the coveted PKL trophy home on 19th October.
However, the journey of Jaipur Pink Panthers, Patna Pirates, Gujarat Fortune Giants, Puneri Paltan, Telugu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas has come to an abrupt end as the players of these teams could not take them to the next round.
Despite assembling a strong squad, the aforementioned teams did not make it big in the seventh season of the Pro Kabaddi League. However, the team management of these units will now look forward to the next season and they would like to release a few under-performers.
Here’s a list showcasing one player each eliminated team may release before the next PKL season:
#6 Sunil Siddhgavali - Jaipur Pink Panthers
Matches - 14, Tackle Points - 9, Average Tackle Points/Match - 0.64
The Jaipur Pink Panthers bought cover defender Sunil Siddhgavali in the auction for a price of ₹20 lakhs. However, the defender could not live up to expectations and emerged as one of the weak links of the team.
Though the Season 1 champions had the trio of Deepak Hooda, Deepak Narwal and Nilesh Salunke in the raiding attack along with Amit Hooda and Sandeep Dhull at the corner positions, they could not make it to the playoffs.
The key reason behind this was the poor performance of the cover defenders. While Vishal impressed with his tackles, the other cover, Siddhgavali played 14 matches this season but could score only 9 tackle points, and had a tackle strike-rate of just 20 percent. As such, Jaipur might look to release him before PKL 2020.