Pro Kabaddi League Season 6: Predicting Jaipur Pink Panthers' starting seven for the initial matches
The franchise based in Jaipur, the Jaipur Pink Panthers is a renowned team of the Pro Kabaddi League. Season 1 champions, Jaipur Pink Panthers are owned by Mr Abhishek Bachchan. The team is known to have a rivalry mindset with the other remaining teams and show breathtaking competency on the Kabaddi mat.
Jaipur Pink Panthers after their triumphant run in the inaugural season beating U Mumba in the final (35-24), have lost their form and have failed immensely since then. They were the runners-up of Season 4, with Patna Pirates beating them for their 2nd title.
Jaipur Pink Panthers has the winning percentage of 47.56% as they have won 39 matches out of 82. The Pink Panthers are the 2nd highest team in most super tackles in Pro Kabaddi history (73 times).
In Season 5, they built a consistent team and signed big match all-rounder Manjeet Chhillar for ₹75.5 lakhs and had huge expectations from the squad whose corner defence was considered weak.
However, the fear turned true as nobody except Manjeet Chhillar stood in the defensive line-up. Manjeet could only play 15 matches and scored 47 tackle points as he sustained an injury versus Bengaluru Bulls on his leg.
Their strategy of sending Jasvir Singh into the do or die raids costed the Pink Panthers heavily as Jasvir couldn't even take bonus points or execute scorpion kicks to score points. Their standout raider was Pawan Kadian who got 122 raid points and led from the front.
Somvir Shekhar had a season to forget with no contributions from him at all. Nitin Rawal was an outstanding find for the team who took raid points in crucial times. All in all, the team won only 8 out of the 22 matches and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
Jaipur Pink Panthers was one out of three teams to have no retentions ahead of the Season 6 auctions. In the dying stages ahead of the auctions, Nitin Rawal, Ajit Singh, and Lokesh Kaushik were the NYP retentions.
For Season 6, Jaipur Pink Panthers have signed 18 players for the upcoming 6th season of Pro Kabaddi. Ajinkya Pawar (raider) got added to the squad after the auctions. Deepak Niwas Hooda is their expensive signing at ₹1.15 crores. Balwan Singh got replaced by L. Srinivas Reddy as Head Coach and Ravi Shetty as the Assistant Coach.
Here's the predicted playing 7 of Jaipur Pink Panthers in the initial part of the tournament:
Right Corner: Mohit Chhillar
One of the most successful right corners Kabaddi has to offer, Mohit Chhillar is a veteran in the Pro Kabaddi League. This Railways' player is the best when it comes to chain tackles coordinating with the player of right in to block the raider's path.
His frontal blocks are a treat to the eyes. Mohit Chhillar has 209 tackle points in 77 matches with an average of 2.71 tackle points. Mohit's addition to the team brings immense strength to the lineup due to his phenomenal defending.
His dominant run in the Dubai Kabaddi Masters and Asiad 2018 depicts why he has absolute efficiency in the sport.