PKL 9: Rakesh's Gujarat Giants to host Guman Singh's U Mumba

The winner of the game will move into the top four of the league table.

Gujarat Giants are coming off a close victory against Haryana Steelers in the last encounter (42-38) in PKL 9. Rakesh Kumar was once again the star scoring 18 raid points which are almost half the total points scored by Gujarat Giants. Gujarat Giants are on a good run winning their last two encounters and will look to continue the run. Gujarat Giants will play U Mumba in their next PKL 9 game.

U Mumba lost the last encounter against Bengaluru Bulls by a huge margin (32-42). Guman Singh scored a super 10 and was the lone raider taking up the responsibility in raiding. U Mumba has been inconsistent losing two out of the last three matches. 

Team News

Gujarat Giants

Raiders: Chandran Ranjit, Mahendra Rajput, Dong Geon Lee, Purna Singh, Sonu, Pardeep Kumar, Rakesh, Gaurav Chhikara, Sohit, Sonu Singh, Sawin

All-Rounders: Arkam Shaikh, Parteek Dhaiya, Rohan Singh, Shankar Gadai

Defenders: Vinod Kumar, Young Chang Ko, Rinku Narwal, Baldev Singh, Sourav Gulia, Sandeep Kandola, Manuj, Kapil, Ujjval Singh

U Mumba

Raiders: Guman Singh, Ashish, Heidarali Ekrami, Jai Bhagwan Ankush, Kamlesh, Shivam, Pranay Rane, Sachin, Rupesh

All-Rounders: Gholamabbas Korouki

Defenders: Rinku, Surinder Singh, Harendra Kumar, Shivansh Thakur, Prince, Kiran Magar, Rahul, Satywan, Mohit

Head to Head

Gujarat Giants and U Mumba have faced each other ten in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Gujarat Giants have won 6 whereas U Mumba has come out victorious on three occasions with one match ending in a tie.

Player to watch

Chandran Ranjith has scored 35 raid points out of which 20 points came in a single match. He is given the captain armband being the experienced raider having represented multiple PKL franchises in the past. Ranjith needs to support Rakesh Kumar who has been the standout and looks set to break records in PKL season 9.

Surender Singh has slowly started to get back to his best after a slow start to the season and being the most experienced defender needs to handle young troops by not putting unwanted tackles. Surender in the past was known for his high-line defence and unsuccessful tackle rate which has declined this season.

Key to Success

Guman Singh after a string of low scores is back to form scoring super 10s. Jai Bhagwan has looked good as the secondary raider but has not been good enough to support Guman Singh. With a young squad U Mumba, the raiders can look to attack rather and score more points rather than relying more on a single raider.

Sourav Gulia scored a high 5 in the last encounter against Haryana Steelers. Rinku Narwal has vast experience playing for multiple franchises but has not lived up to expectations. Shankar Gadai and Arkam Shaikh being youngsters need to step up as the franchise is relying a lot upon them. 

Did you know

Chandran Ranjith has scored 295 points (raiding + defence) and is just five points short of reaching the 300 points mark. The Gujarat Giants captain has scored 275 raid points to date.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 07:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar