Pro Kabaddi League Season 6: Predicting Bengaluru Bulls' starting 7 for the initial matches
Based in Bengaluru, the Bengaluru Bulls are one of the most well-known franchises in Pro Kabaddi history. The team owned by WL League Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru Bulls was the semi-finalists of the inaugural season and the finalists of Pro Kabaddi Season 2.
Bengaluru Bulls has a winning percentage of 40.24% where they have 33 wins in 82 matches. Led by Manjeet Chhillar in the first two seasons, Bengaluru Bulls comprised of experienced players namely Ajay Thakur, Rajesh Mondal, and Dharmaraj Cherelathan.
Ever since the 3rd season, Bengaluru Bulls have never made it to the playoffs with them adopting the strategy of keeping young players in the squad. An interesting stat reads that after Rohit Kumar joined Bengaluru Bulls in Season 4, he has scored 31.55% of the team's total points. Rohit Kumar till now has carried the team on his shoulders without any support from the raiding and defensive unit.
In Season 5 where the duo of Rohit Kumar and Ajay Kumar were expected to slay the opposition defence, only Rohit Kumar prevailed and became the second best raider of the season (219 raid points in 22 matches). In the raiding unit, nobody scored more than 90+ raid points, Ajay could only score 89 raid points.
The defence kept the Bulls intact in the tournament with Ravinder Pahal, Kuldeep Singh, and debutant Mahender Singh. However, the right cover was a bit of a problematic position for the team. Ashish Sangwan who was Bulls' retention in Season 5 failed miserably and couldn't contribute to the team at all.
Rohit's heroics led the team to stay in contention at the very end. However, a match against UP Yoddha where they won with a lesser point difference knocked the Bulls' out of the playoffs (38-32).
Ahead of the season 6 auctions, only Rohit Kumar was the elite retention for the team. Harish Naik, Amit Sheoran and Sumit Singh were the NYP retentions.
For Season 6, Bengaluru Bulls have managed to add 20 players to their squad. Their elite pick, Rohit Kumar was the highest paid player with ₹89.1 lakhs. With BC Ramesh and Randhir Singh to lead the coaching department, here's the predicted playing 7 for the Bengaluru Bulls in the initial matches of Pro Kabaddi Season 6!
Right Corner: Nitesh BR
Nitesh BR represented Karnataka in the Senior Nationals 2017-18 and formed a great partnership with Jawahar Vivek K. A young right corner defender, Nitesh BR went to the Bengaluru Bulls for ₹8 lakhs.
The right corner is known for some good dives from the corner position and is known to assist the other defenders pretty well. Karnataka highly relied on this two corner duo en route to semi-finals in the Nationals and the finals in the Federation Cup.
Since Raju Lal Chaudhary hasn't contributed enough for his national side in Kabaddi Masters and Asiad 2018, this new corner duo will be expected to be a part of the Bulls' starting 7.