PKL 9: Dabang Delhi look at Naveen Kumar for inspiration against Tamil Thalaivas

The 22-year-old raider has scored Super 10s in all of the games this season.

Tamil Thalaivas bounced back strongly after the Bengaluru leg won against a top side Jaipur Pink Panthers (38-27). Ajinkya Pawar had a good game and is slowly getting back to his original form helping Narendra Kandola in the raiding department. Narendra Kandola scored yet another super 10 and is turning out to be a bright star in the Pro Kabaddi league. Tamil Thalaivas will next play Dabang Delhi in PKL 9.

Dabang Delhi KC after winning five successive encounters has lost the next three encounters displacing them from the top spot. Ashu Mallik in the past few games has given good support to Naveen Kumar who scored his 8th consecutive super 10 in the last game against Bengaluru Bulls.

Team News

Tamil Thalaivas

Raiders: Pawan Sehrawat, Ajinkya Ashok Pawar, Himanshu Kandola, Jatin, Himanshu

All-Rounders: Thanushan Laxmamohan, Visvanath V, K Abhimanyu

Defenders: Sagar, Sahil, M Abishek, Mohit, Himanshu, Ashish, Md Arif Rabbani, Arpit Saroha, Ankit

Dabang Delhi KC

Raiders: Naveen Kumar, Manjeet, Ashu Malik, Ashish Narwal, Suraj Panwar

Defenders: Ravi Kumar, Sandeep Dhull, Amit Hooda, Vishal, Anil Kumar, Monu, Dipak, Krishan, Vinay Kumar, Vijay, Mohammad Liton Ali, Aakash

All-rounders: Vijay, Tejas Patil, Reza Katoulinezhad

Head to Head

Dabang Delhi KC and Tamil Thalaivas have faced each other six times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Dabang Delhi KC has won five and Tamil Thalaivas are yet to open the account with one match ending in a tie.

Player to watch

Ashu Malik in the absence of Manjeet and Vijay Malik has been playing well in the last few games. Ashu in the last encounter against Bengaluru Bulls scored 15 raid points both in touch as well as taking bonus points. The raiding department has been the strength of Dabang Delhi KC for the past few seasons.

Ajinkya Pawar after the inclusion of Ashan Kumar has performed well against Jaipur. In the last season, Ajinkya Pawar took over as the primary raider in the latter stages but will now have a bigger role to play. Pawar will be useful in a do-or-die situation along with taking the bonus and against Delhi, his raiding will come in handy.

Key to Success

Dabang Delhi KC's defence has been poor in the last few encounters of PKL 9. Krishan Dhull and Ravi were outstanding in the initial games but in the latter stages of the Pune leg, their performances started to dip which is evident in the results. In the last game against Bengaluru Bulls, all the defenders were poor impacting the team's performance. Krishan shall be careful about Narender’s threat and shall make him sit on the bench for a longer time.  

Naveen Kumar and Ashu Malik will be up against Tamil Thalaiva's best corner defenders Sahil Gulia and Sagar. These two defenders have been performing well for the past few games and will play a massive role in controlling the flow of the game. Mohit Chillar in the cover region needs to be attentive and reduce the unsuccessful tackle rate. 

Did you know?

Dabang Delhi KC remain unbeaten against Tamil Thalaivas since season 5 and is the only team to have an unbeaten run in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar