Top Five best debutant defenders of PKL 9

Ankush Rathee won the green arm after playing a big role in Jaipur Pink Panthers' win this edition.

Season 9 of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) has unearthed many unknown talents and one such name is Ankush Rathee from Jaipur Pink Panthers. The youngster scored 89 points in his debut season in the presence of experienced Sunil Kumar and Sahul Kumar. The scouting teams for all the franchises put in massive work to find good young players and provide them with the opportunity to play in PKL. 

Abhishek KS - 25 tackle points

Matches - 18 | Total Points - 25 | High 5s - 1

Abhishek the cover defender from Jaipur Pink Panthers made his presence in his debut match scoring four tackle points and he was also comfortable in tackling top raiders in the initial few matches. A loss in the form in the middle saw Reza occupying the youngster's position and from there on Abhishek wasn't part of the playing 7 often being used as a substitute. Overall Abhishek could have performed better but Jaipur had three defenders scoring more than 50 tackle points which meant there wasn’t any added pressure on the youngster to perform.

Vaibhav Garje - 30 tackle points

Matches -18 | Total Points - 31 | High 5s - 1 | Tackle strike rate - 36 %

Vaibhav Garje the cover defender from Bengal Warriors had a pretty average season. Although this was his first season he could have done far better than his current performance. Garje started the PKL season 9 on a bang scoring an average of three tackle points per match but after a few matches, the form started to decline and never got back to his best. 

Arkam Shaik - 37 tackle points

Matches - 22 | Total points - 40 | High 5s - 1 | Tackle Strike Rate - 38%

Arkam Shaikh the cover defender was always in an attacking mode and had a very powerful weapon in his armoury (solo dash) which he could have used with more maturity. His weapon majority of the time turned into his weakness by going in for advanced tackles and gifting away points to the raider. Not all the players get to play complete league matches even after committing many errors but Ram Mehar Singh had high hopes for the youngster.

Mohit Kaler - 44 tackle points

Matches - 20 | Total Points - 44 | High 5s - 1 | Tackle Strike Rate - 43%

Mohit Kaler played a key role in U Mumba’s defensive setup which did not have many experienced defenders. Only Surender and Harendra Kumar were experienced among the lot but still, the defensive unit of U Mumba stood out, outnumbering their raiders. The combo of Mohit and Rinku was excellent with Rinku being given the additional responsibility of captaining the side thus becoming the youngest captain in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League.

Ankush Rathee - 89 tackle points

Matches - 24 | Total Points - 89 | High 5s - 9 | Tackle successful rate - 64% | Average successful tackles - 3.71

The left corner defender from Jaipur Pink Panthers was the top defender and was awarded the green arm for scoring the highest tackle points in the PKL season 9. The average tackle points per match were close to four which was among the best in the league with Chiyaneh holding the upper hand in this stat. He was scouted by Jaipur during the Khelo India Youth Games and it turned out to be a dream season for the youngster.