Pro Kabaddi League 2018: 5 reasons why U Mumba can win the title
Pro Kabaddi League Season 6 is close on our heels as the thrilling kabaddi acition will kick off on October 7, 2018 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, Tamil Nadu as the Chennai leg of the Pro Kabaddi League starts off the proceedings. Over the space of three months, twelve franchises will go head to head and compete for the chance to claim the coveted championship title. The grand finale of the Pro Kabaddi League 2018 will take place at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai, Maharashtra on January 5, 2019.
One franchise which will hope to make it to the finals will be U Mumba, as they could utilize the home mat advantage in the final stages of the competition. The team has won the championships back in the second season of the Pro Kabaddi League and have been consistently one of the best-performing franchises in the league over the years. Last season was a rare glitch in their history when they failed to qualify for the playoffs for just the second time in five seasons.
Going into the fresh season, U Mumba have had a lot of personnel changes to their roster losing their long time captain and Kabaddi stalwart Anup Kumar to the Jaipur Pink Panthers in this year's auction. However, they have managed to build a squad which could just surprise every team in the league with their mix of experience and youth across the board.
U Mumba made Fazel Atracheli the first crorepati in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League when they signed him for the amount of 1 Crores in the auction. They have added talents like Abolfazl Maghsoudlou, Rohit Baliyan, Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Rohit Rana and Hadi Tajik to their squad which will play a key role in galvanizing the youngsters to lead a charge for the title this season.
We take a look at a few reasons that the U Mumba side could be triumphant in the sixth season of the Pro Kabaddi League.
#5 Abolfazl Maghsoudlou's raiding skillset
U Mumba do not have any of the top Indian national team's raiders in their side this season, however, they have gone for the lanky raider from Iran, Abolfazl Maghsoudlou. The Iranian formed a formidable partnership with countryman Meraj Sheykh in the Dabang Delhi KC squad as he used his large frame and smooth skills on the mat to score points.
Abolfazl scored 91 raid points last season and will be expected to lead the charge for the U Mumba raiding unit along with the youngsters picked up by the franchise in the auction.