Pro Kabaddi League Season 6: Predicting Haryana Steelers' starting seven for the initial matches
The franchise based on Sonepat, Haryana, Haryana Steelers had a decent debut season in their inaugural outing in Pro Kabaddi Season 5. Owned by JSW Sports, Haryana Steelers were on third place in the Group A points table where they had managed to win 13 matches out of 22 to ensure their qualification for the playoffs.
Haryana Steelers was a team led by India's finest left corner defender, Surender Nada who wore the orange armband as the best defender of Season 5 (80 defense points in 21 matches) with nine High 5s in his tally. Wazir Singh got scored 120 raid points in 21 matches who was their best raider last season.
They had good raiders in their arsenal as well but their individual performances one at a time where the others kept struggling was the reason they didn't have an aggressive raiding display.
An injury prone run to Vikas Kandola's outing who was their find of the tournament and the lack of experience in their cover defense could only manage them to play the Eliminator where they were beaten by Patna Pirates.
In Season 6 auctions, Haryana Steelers only managed to sign 16 players in their squad. Ahead of the auctions, they didn't retain any player except Kuldeep Singh, who left many fans in dilemma.
However, they caught many eyeballs when they came out of nowhere at ₹139 lakhs in the bidding war between U Mumba and Delhi and finally acquired Monu Goyat at a splendid amount of ₹1.51 crores, the highest bid for any player in Pro Kabaddi history.
As Rambir Singh Khokkar will continue to coach the team in Season 6, here is the predicted starting line up which the team management might consider in the starting days of the tournament.
Right Corner: Vikas
Vikas was introduced for the first time as a replacement for Mohit Chillar in the Haryana leg when Mohit was out of touch.
Safe to say, Vikas established an immense admiration for himself when he dominated over the left raiders with his lethal ankle holds which he executes when the raiders try to swiftly steal a bonus under him or execute a toe touch.
He didn't have many chances though in Season 5 as he was brought in as a substitution for the majority of 19 matches he played.
Even if he scored only 26 tackle points, he established an influential understanding with Surender Nada and filled in the shoes of Mohit Chhillar perfectly.
This time around, the team management has highly relied upon Vikas retaining him over the all-time great, Chillar and this newly formed duo of Nada and Vikas will be interesting to watch for many Kabaddi fans.