Jaipur Pink Panthers Pro Kabaddi Season 7 Team Analysis

The Pro Kabaddi Auction ahead of Season 7 was a highly anticipated affair with several teams looking to put together the remaining pieces of the jigsaw puzzle but also others looking to hit the reset button as they move forward with a completely new unit filled with new personnel. The auction wasn’t short of the star quotient either, with the likes of Monu Goyat, Rahul Chaudhari, Abozar Mighani, Sandeep Narwal, Nitin Tomar, Rishank Devadiga and Siddharth Desai all up for grabs!

There are positives and negatives when it comes to re-booting a side completely in an auction that has 12 teams vying for top players. On one hand, the purse available is significantly larger (teams like Puneri Paltan, Telugu Titans & UP Yodha had this luxury) than several other sides that have retained their core and that gives the team owners the ability to bully the auction a little and raise the price of players which competing owners definitely want back in their squads. On the other hand however, with 11 other teams vying for each player, the chances of putting together a balanced side from scratch become harder than when it was in an 8-team league and each team’s strategy tables have gotten smarter too with every passing auction.

Time to jump straight into our analysis of each team ahead of this Pro Kabaddi Season 7 and give you a detailed breakdown of the side with the strengths and potential gaps, which need to be addressed before July arrives. We at Kabaddi Adda have decided to detail each squad with a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) to understand where they currently stand but also to give all Kabaddi fans an idea of where these teams could find room to improve as the season kicks off…and we certainly expect a few surprises too!
 

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Inaugural Champions of Pro Kabaddi, the Jaipur Pink Panthers, had a season to forget in PKL 6 with just 6 wins from their 22 matches despite having the likes of Anup Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Sandeep Dhull, Mohit Chhillar and Selvamani and found themselves among the bottom three teams in terms of total raid points scored.

The squad has a very different look for PKL 7 however with Anup Kumar retiring (and becoming Puneri Paltans’ Coach) and Mohit and Selvamani released by the team too. The Pink Panthers bought Amit Hooda who returns to his old home where he had his best season in the right-corner and retained the services of Sandeep Dhull, which could turn out to be a very good corner combination and also Sunil Sidhgavalli, who could come out with less mistakes given the faith shown in him by the management. The raiding unit, which needed a big lift, sees the addition of the wily Nilesh Salunke (from Telugu Titans), Deepak Narwal (who won Patna the title on his raid in PKL3) and also have the impressive Ajinkya Pawar & Nitin Rawal, who will be hoping to stay injury free for this campaign.

It’s a team that has severely underperformed over the last two seasons especially given the quality of performers they possessed.

It’s a team that has severely underperformed over the last two seasons especially given the quality of performers they possessed so PKL7 is really a big test of the management to use the resources in the right manner to squeeze the most out of the players’ potential. Deepak Hooda’s raiding prowess came to the fore late in the season and it will be interesting to see if he is used as an out-and-out raider or as a traditional all-rounder who raids primarily but also has to shoulder the responsibility of a left-cover defender as he has done in the past.

The team has a pretty balanced feel to it overall with plenty of options, the key is to use the various options in a way that their abilities are maximized and ensure that Jaipur Pink Panthers and Abishek Bachchan get the team back to winning ways.