Winners of season 7 of the Pro Kabaddi League, Bengal Warriorz will be eager to reclaim the PKL title following an underwhelming campaign that saw them miss out on the playoffs after finishing seventh in the league stage standings last time around. (More Sports News)
Ahead of season 11, the Warriorz parted ways with ex-head coach K Baskaran, who was their head coach for the last two seasons and replaced him with their former assistant coach Prashant Surve. Furthermore, former kabaddi player Praveen Yadav, who provides free training for kids at the Gurugram Tau Devilal Stadium, has been named as the assistant coach of Bengal.
Busy at the season 11 player auction table, the Warriorz ended with a squad that covered most of their bases. Here, we take a closer look at the Bengal-based franchise's squad and assess their strengths and weaknesses ahead of the new campaign.
Strengths
The season 7 champions’ biggest strength has to be the quality and experience of the raiders and defenders in their squad. The Warriorz ensured they retained their captain Maninder Singh by exercising their Final Bid Match (FBM) card for INR 1.15 crore. Second on the leaderboard for most raid points in PKL history, Maninder has notched up 1,428 raid points in PKL.
He will lead the raiding department of the Warriorz alongside the likes of Nitin Kumar, Vishwas S, Pranay Rane and newcomer Arjun Rathi, who got picked for INR 41 lakh as the most expensive category D player. With multiple options in attack to choose from, the Warriorz can be safe in the knowledge that they have plenty of raiding firepower, should injuries or a dip in form force a change in their plans.
Meanwhile, their defence doesn’t look like an easy one to get the better of either. After signing Fazel Atrachali - the top-scoring defender (486 tackle points) in PKL history - for INR 50 lakh at the player auction, Bengal Warriorz have now ensured that they have top-quality players on both ends of the mat to lead the team by example.
Atrachali will also be supported by Nitesh Kumar, who is sixth on the all-time leaderboard for most tackle points (350). The star-studded defensive corner duo of Bengal Warriorz will also be supported by the likes of Mayur Kadam and Vaibhav Garje, both of whom have shown that they have what it takes to be a success in Pro Kabaddi.
Weaknesses
One of the biggest weaknesses that Bengal Warriorz may have to deal with in Pro Kabaddi season 11 is the lack of all-rounders in their team. Most teams that have enjoyed success in PKL generally tend to have at least one if not more quality all-rounders in their team. However, the Warriorz seem to be severely lacking in this department. Sagar Kumar, who was with Patna Pirates in PKL season 9, is the only recognised all-rounder in the Warriorz squad.
He has only managed seven tackle points in his PKL career so far and needless to say, Sagar will need to up his game if Bengal Warriorz are to have a more balanced starting 7 with an all-rounder in it. While this is not to say that there aren’t other players in the squad capable of stepping into the role of an all-rounder, there’s still no denying the fact that on paper, Sagar is the only all-rounder in the squad.
Opportunities
As far as the opportunities to impress are concerned, Bengal have plenty of young talents who will be looking to shine. Nitin Kumar is one such player and he will be looking to go from strength to strength in the upcoming season after accounting for 169 raid points in the last campaign.
He finished seventh on the season 10 leaderboard for most raid points and it will be interesting to see how he, along with the likes of Vishwas S, Pranay Rane and Arjun Rathi supports their skipper and main raider Maninder Singh. Arjun Rathi, in particular, will be an interesting player to follow considering the fact that Warriorz seem to have a lot of faith in him given the INR 41 lakh they chose to buy him for at the auction.
Threats
Meanwhile, the lack of top-quality defensive options beyond corners Fazel Atrachali and Nitesh Kumar could come back to bite the season 7 champs. The Warriorz let go their best defender from season 10 in Shubham Shinde and although they got more than an able replacement in Fazel as their team’s leader in the defence, their defensive options apart from the Iranian powerhouse seem susceptible in pressure situations.
While Nitesh Kumar has plenty of experience in PKL, his performances have dipped over the last few seasons, which could be an area of concern for Bengal. Furthermore, the likes of Mayur Kadam and Vaibhav Garje in the cover positions will need to perform consistently in the new season.
