Pro Kabaddi 2018: Top 5 teams with the most Instagram followers
Mashal Sports, in collaboration with Star Sports India, initiated PKL as an IPL-style Kabaddi tournament in 2014, wherein eight city-based franchises battled in a two-month long tournament.
Patna (Patna Pirates), Hyderabad (Telugu Titans), Mumbai (U Mumba), Pune (Puneri Paltan), Delhi (Dabang Delhi), Kolkata (Bengal Warriors), Bengaluru (Bengaluru Bulls), and Jaipur (Jaipur Pink Panthers) were the first eight cities to have their own PKL teams.
However, due to the league’s success, it expanded to a 12-team tournament after introducing teams from Ahmedabad (Gujarat Fortune Giants), Chennai (Tamil Thalaivas), Sonipat (Haryana Steelers) and Lucknow (UP Yoddha).
The franchises and players became immensely popular in the entire nation and this popularity can also be witnessed on social media. Here are the top 5 PKL teams with the most followers on Instagram -
#5 Puneri Paltan - 78.3k followers
Puneri Paltan made its Pro Kabaddi League debut in 2014 but could not achieve the success the fans would have wanted in the first two seasons.
They managed to win only four matches in the first two seasons. The owners changed the jersey colours and also signed the stars like Manjeet Chillar, Ajay Thakur and strengthened their team.
Puneri Paltan finished third in the league stage but failed to make it past the semi-finals. However, this was the best performance of Puneri Paltan in the three seasons of the league and the team never looked back then.
The team from Pune missed out on a playoff spot by a whisker in the fourth season but secured the second position in the Zone A points table the following year to qualify for the playoffs.
Pune has a strong fan following on the social media network, Instagram as they have more than 78,000 and the number has almost doubled since 2016.