PKL 11 U Mumba: Team Profile
Buoyed by the arrival of Sunil Kumar, U Mumba will be looking to improve their performances from last season.
U Mumba started off as the most dominant side in the Pro Kabaddi League, reaching the final in the inaugural edition, lifting the title the next season and again ending as runners-up in the third season. The team consisted of a few of the greats of the game. The likes of Anup Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Surender Nada, Mohit Chhillar have all plied their trade for the Mumbai-based franchisee.
However, they have not been able to replicate the success ever since. In fact, after reaching the semifinal in season 7, they have failed to qualify for the playoffs in the last three seasons. Last time, they finished tenth with a meagre tally of 45 points. They could only muster up six wins in twenty-matches. U Mumba started off well, having racked up five wins in a row at one point. However, a stunning shift of momentum saw them failing to win a single win in their last fourteen matches.
The season 2 champions have made a number of changes, the biggest one being the inclusion of experienced right cover Sunil Kumar, who is also set to be their skipper. With a strong defensive line-up and exciting raiders set to take the mat, Coach Gholamreza Mazandarani’s side will be looking to put up a better performance this time. With the eleventh season approaching fast, let us take a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses for this U Mumba outfit.
Strengths
The biggest strength for U Mumba is the cover duo of cousins Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal. Sunil who broke his own record of being the most expensive Indian defender, after being bought at a whopping price of Rs. 1.015 Cr is one of the calmest heads in the league. He and Parvesh had wreaked havoc at the Gujarat Giants. In their four seasons together, Parvesh scored 245 points, while Sunil scored 220 points.
The right corner position will be again manned by Rinku Sharma. He had been ruled out last season mid-way due to an injury, which had hurt his team badly. Having scored 147 points in 50 matches, Rinku will again be a key player.
The defence has a lot of back-ups too with right corners Amir Ghorbani and Bittu, right cover Gokulakannan and left cover Shanmugam Mukilan present in the squad.
Another big buy for U Mumba was that of Manjeet Dahiya, who has been consistent in the last few editions with tallies of 151, 167, 163 and 120 points from seasons 7 to 10. He will lead the raiding unit and will be ably supported by Amirmohammad Zafardanesh, who had mesmerized everyone with his quick feet last season.
With a number of New Young Players (NYP), the season 2 champions have the right balance of experience and youth.
Weaknesses
A glaring weakness is the absence of an established raider who can rack up points for fun and win matches single-handedly. They will need Manjeet and Zafardanesh to click in tandem every time. With Shivam having been released by the team, they might also struggle to find a third raider.
While the rest of the defence looks set, they don’t have a big name for the left corner position. While, Sombir Goswami did score 47 points in just 15 matches last season, he is still quite inexperienced. They don’t have too many back-ups for the position too.
Opportunities
Manjeet will have the opportunity he has been waiting for-he will be the strike raider for the team. Having played second fiddle to Sachin Tanwar last season, he will now have the responsibility to try and score 200+ raid points. Young Iranian Zafardanesh, who scored 148 points last season, will be looking to stay fit and have an even bigger impact this time.
A number of young raiders are set to get opportunities this time. Ajit Chouhan, who has been highly rated by many, might be the third raider. The likes of Stuwart Singh, Satish Kannan, M. Dhanasekar too might get chances. They must use them to the fullest and try and cement their places in the starting VII.
Threats
U Mumba hasn’t had the best of times lately. The biggest example is them having failed to win any of their last fourteen matches in the last season. It is necessary to reverse this momentum, else they might end up staring down the barrel once more.
If one of Manjeet or Zafardanesh fail to perform to expectations or can’t remain fit for the entirety of the season, it will hurt the team big-time as they don’t have any other established raider, who could come in as a replacement. They will also need points from at least one of the young raiders, else they could be starved off raid points. This might end up making Manjeet and Zafardanesh focus on staying on the mat, rather than tagging opposition defenders, which won’t bode well for the team.
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