Down memory lane: Arjun Deshwal helps Pink Panthers win PKL 9

The Jaipur-based team had the raider with the most raid points and the defender with the most tackle points.

Pro Kabaddi League PKL season 9 started on 7th October 2022 spanning two months played across four venues. Unlike the previous season, spectators were allowed to watch the match live and the league stages were spread across three venues. Bengaluru hosted the first leg followed by Pune and Hyderabad with Mumbai hosting the playoff matches. Tamil Thalaivas was the only team not to have qualified for the playoffs but made it through in season 9 reaching the semifinals and finishing inside the top 4. Since its inception in season 5, Tamil Thalaivas has only finished in the penultimate or last position. 

Pawan Sehrawat the primary raider got injured in the first match and was sidelined for the entire season. Sagar the right-corner defender got injured in the last phase of the league stage which made things worse for the southern side. Although the team lost two crucial players, Ashan Kumar did not rely on individual brilliance but rather backed every player to perform. Narender Kandola turned out to be a young prodigy replacing the gap left by Pawan Sehrawat. Narender Kandola scored 243 raid points the most for Tamil Thalaivas in a single season (the record was previously held by Ajay Thakur).

Pardeep Narwal became the first raider to reach the 1400 raid points mark.

Auctions

Pawan Sehrawat created history and was the costliest buy in the history of the PKL. The costliest buy in the PKL season 1 was around the 14 lakh mark but the league has grown at a rapid pace making players financially strong. Pawan went to Tamil Thalaivas for a whopping 2.26 crores. Vikash Kandola (1.7 crores) to Bengaluru Bulls, Fazel Athrachali (1.38 crores) to Puneri Paltan, and Guman Singh (1.25 crores) to U Mumba were the highest bids of PKL season 9.

The number of foreign players decreased from 24 (in season 8) to 20 with each franchise filling its foreign quota of two players.

Top Raiders

Arjun Deshwal

Matches - 24 | Raid Points - 296

Arjun Deshwal was retained by Jaipur Pink Panthers scoring the most raid points for the franchise in the previous season. The raider fell short by four points to reach the magical 300 raid points mark only achieved by a few players in the past (Pardeep Narwal, Pawan Sehrawat, and Naveen Kumar). He led the raiding department single-handedly in 80 per cent of the matches with the next-best raider from Jaipur scoring 100 raid points (Ajith Kumar).

Bharat Hooda

Matches - 23 | Raid Points - 279

Bharat played the tutelage of Pawan Sehrawat in the PKL season 8 scoring close to 130 raid points. After Pawan Sehrawat shifted base Bharat took over the primary raiding role in the presence of experienced raider Vikash Kandola (2nd costliest buy in season 9). 

Naveen Kumar

Matches - 23 | Raid Points - 254

Naveen Kumar started the season well scoring nine consecutive super 10s but lost form in the middle phase. He made a strong comeback in the final phase of the league stages guiding Dabang Delhi KC to a fourth successive playoff spot.

Top Defenders

Ankush Rathee

Matches - 24 | Tackle Points - 89

Ankush Rathee scored 89 tackle points in his debut PKL season and got enough support from experienced defenders Sunil Kumar and Sahul Kumar. Jaipur Pink Panthers was the only team in PKL season 9 to feature three defenders scoring 50 plus tackle points. It is often said, “raiders win you matches but defenders win you championships”. 

Mohammedreza Chiyaneh

Matches - 20 | Tackle Points - 84

Chiyanedh missed the initial two matches due to external issues but since his arrival performed consistently. He is the only defender to score 16 tackle points in a single match with all the tackle points coming through super tackles. The Iranian continued from where he left off in the previous season and once again featured in the top 3 tackle points list.

Saurabh Nandal

Matches - 24 | Tackle Points - 72

Saurabh Nandal scored 72 tackle points and combined well with Aman the left-corner defender. Saurabh has been a consistent performer for Bengaluru Bulls leading the defence for the third successive season.

Super 10s

1. Arjun Deshwal - 17

2. Naveen Kumar - 16

3. Bharat - 16

High 5s

1. Ankush Rathee - 9

2. Parvesh bainswal - 6

3. Mohammedreza Chiyaneh - 6