Pro Kabaddi 2022: Best Playing 7 from the league stage
The Pro Kabaddi 2022 league round culminated yesterday evening with a Triple Panga at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium. The Patna Pirates cruised to a nine-point win over the Bengal Warriors in the final league-stage match. However, neither Patna nor Bengal have qualified for the playoffs this season.
The six teams to advance to the next round are Jaipur Pink Panthers, Puneri Paltan, Bengaluru Bulls, UP Yoddhas, Tamil Thalaivas, and Dabang Delhi KC. In the 132 league matches, there were different heroes on different nights, but the following seven players delivered the goods for their teams consistently during the league stage.
Here is the best playing 7 of the Pro Kabaddi 2022 league stage.
Raiders - Arjun Deshwal, Bharat Hooda and Naveen Kumar
Jaipur Pink Panthers star Arjun Deshwal topped the raiders' leaderboard in the league stage this season. Deshwal continued his brilliant form from last season and ended the first round with 286 raid points from 22 matches. He is only 14 raid points away from becoming the first raider to touch the 300 raid-point milestone in Pro Kabaddi 2022.
Joining him in the raiding unit will be Bengaluru Bulls star Bharat Hooda. All eyes were on Vikash Kandola in the Bulls' raiding department, but Hooda outshone his senior player with some memorable raiding performances. The Bulls player is second on the leaderboard right now, with 257 raid points from 21 matches.
Dabang Delhi KC captain Naveen Kumar completes the raiding unit of this team. Kumar led his team from the front by scoring 246 raid points in 22 matches. His 16 Super 10s ensured that the defending champions made it to the playoffs despite building a big losing streak in the mid-phase of the league stage.
Defenders - Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, Rinku Sharma, Sunil Kumar (c) and Vishal Lather
Jaipur Pink Panthers captain Sunil Kumar will lead this playing seven. Kumar was in top form this season, scoring 58 tackle points in 21 matches. He scored the most tackle points among all the right cover defenders in the league stage.
Kumar's left cover partner in the team will be Dabang Delhi KC's Vishal Lather. Not many fans expected Lather to be the top-scorer in Delhi's defense, but he ended up scoring 58 tackle points from 21 matches.
Mohammadreza Chiyaneh and Rinku Sharma will form the corner pair of this team. Chiyaneh ended up as the number one defender of the league stage, despite missing Patna Pirates' first two matches due to visa issues. The left corner defender earned a total of 84 tackle points, with 16 of them coming in just one match against Dabang Delhi KC.
U Mumba's right corner defender Rinku Sharma was the backbone of his team. He is fourth in the Pro Kabaddi 2022 leaderboard right now, with 59 tackle points. Surprisingly though, neither Chiyaneh nor Sharma will be in action during the playoffs.
Best Playing 7 of Pro Kabaddi 2022 league round
Arjun Deshwal (Center), Bharat Hooda (Right In), Naveen Kumar (Left In), Mohammadreza Chiyaneh (Left Corner), Rinku HC (Right Corner), Vishal Lather (Left Cover), Sunil Kumar (Captain and Right Cover).