Pro Kabaddi 2019 Auction: List of players bought by U Mumba
U Mumba, the team representing Mumbai, made their debut in 2014, ever since the inception of the league. They are one of the best Pro Kabaddi teams and have featured in three finals out of six till date.
Up to the third season, Mumba boasted of stalwart players like Captain Cool Anup Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Surender Nada, Mohit Chillar, Vishal Mane, Jeeva Kumar and many more in their ranks.
The first season for them was pretty much successful as they managed a space into the finals, where they played against Abhishek Bachchan's Jaipur Pink Panthers and unfortunately lost the match.
However, they were one of the top teams of the first installment of the league. They ended up with 51 points on the group table at number two.
Season two was the best one for them as Mumba won the finals against Ajay Thakur's Bengaluru Bulls. They also played the finals against the Pirates of Patna in season 3 but lost due to some rookie mistakes at the end.
Season 4 was when the team's performance started dropping. Mumbai's franchise struggled to enter the semi-finals and eventually ended up losing their only chance to bring the trophy home twice.
Seasons 5 and 6 were all the same. One crucial change to note, Ronnie Screwvala decided to drop Anup Kumar out of the squad last season. If you don't know already, Siddharth Sirish Desai, the player who made a cracking debut from Mumba itself, bagged the "Best find of Season 6" award.
Desai also turned many heads after he became the costliest player of the auctions which took place on the 8th and 9th of April, 2019, after Telegu Titans sealed his bid at ₹145 lakhs. One big shocker, U Mumba did not retain him and also denied the use of their Final Bid Match card to bring him back.
Mumbai's management, just before the auctions, retained Iranian wall Fazel Atrachali, Arjun Deshwal, Rajaguru Subramanian and youngster Surinder Singh. They also used their Final Bid Match card and brought Abhishek Singh and Rohit Baliyan back to the squad.
Wanting to buy Sandeep Narwal, they took his bid up to ₹89 lakhs and finally managed to get him on the squad. Sandeep became the costliest all-rounder from category A. Analyzing the team, in brief, the defense looks pretty strong but a lack of experience is present in the raiders' section.
Now let's have a look at the list of players bought by U Mumba's management at the Pro Kabaddi League season 7 auctions:
Raiders
Arjun Deshwal - Retained
Rohit Baliyan [FBM Used] - ₹35 lakhs
Dong Geon Lee - ₹25 lakhs
Abhishek Singh [FBM Used] - ₹10 lakhs
Vinoth Kumar - ₹10 lakhs
Athul M.S - ₹20 lakhs
Gaurav Kumar - New Young Player
Defenders
Fazel Atrachali- Retained
Surinder Singh - Retained
Rajaguru Subramanian - Retained
Young Chang Ko - ₹10 lakhs
Harendra Kumar - ₹10 lakhs
Harsh Vardhan - ₹10 lakhs
Anil - New Young Player
All-rounders
Sandeep Narwal - ₹89 lakhs
Mohit Baliyan - New Young Player
Ajinkya Rohidas Kapre [Future Star Winner] - ₹10.25 lakhs