PKL 9: HS Rakesh retained by Gujarat Giants

The responsibility of raiding for the team now falls on the 20-year-old young raider.

With only a few days left in the auction for the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 9, all the teams are releasing the list of retained players one after the other. A new name has been added to the retained player, HS Rakesh, who has been retained by the Gujarat Giants team. The final auction will be held on August 5 and 6 in Mumbai.

The news of Rakesh's retention was announced by Gujarat Giants in a slightly different way. The franchise made the announcement through an animated video on their official Twitter and Instagram handles and wrote, "If you want something, come, take something, skilled raider HS Rakesh has been retained for PKL season 9." As per the retention policy, each team can retain up to six players.

HS Rakesh's performance in season 8

HS Rakesh made his debut in the last season of the PKL and proved to be the team's most reliable raider. The credit for his commendable performance goes to his excellent raiding skills. Rakesh scored 140 points in 22 matches, all of which came from raiding. This includes 5 Super 10 and 4 Super Raids.

Bidding process

Domestic, Overseas and New Young Players (NYP) will be divided into four categories - A, B, C and D in the players' auction. All the players will be further divided into each category as 'All-rounders', 'Defenders' and 'Raiders'.

Base price for each category: Category A - Rs 30 lakh, Category B - Rs 20 lakh, Category C - Rs 10 lakh and Category D - Rs 6 lakh. The total salary purse available in his account for each franchise for the PKL Season 9 is Rs 4.4 crores. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see in which category Rakesh will be retained. Information about this is yet to come.

Ram Meher Singh is the new head coach of Gujarat Giants

Ram Meher Singh, who made Patna Pirates the champion of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), has left the coaching of the team and took over the responsibility of head coach of Gujarat Giants. He has been associated as a former captain, player, and coach of the Indian team and has a lot of experience in this regard. He was the captain of the Indian team that won gold medals in the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games. He was also honored with the Arjuna Award in 2003.

Meher Singh is known as a coach for finding new talent, honing in, and creating a star. In such a situation, only 20-year-old raider HS Rakesh would like to learn more and more from his very experienced coach.

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