Hyderabad, 21st June 2019:  Mashal Sports Pvt. Ltd, the organizer of the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) have announced the fixtures for Season 7 starting July 20th. The opening match at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad will have Telugu Titans’ superstar Siddharth Desai taking on his former team U Mumba. Season 7 will build new heroes and have each team playing all other teams twice. The schedule minimizes difference between matches played across teams at any given time making every game more crucial in the race to the playoffs. The LIVE coverage of the new season will begin at 7:00 pm with matches beginning at 7:30 pm on the Star Sports Network and Hotstar.

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• Star raider, Siddharth Desai and Iranian Coach, Gholamreza Mazandarani, take on their previous club, U Mumba in season opener at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad
• Current Champions, Bengaluru Bulls take on 3-time Champions, Patna Pirates in the second game of opening day
• Equitable league table with double round robin format where each team plays every other team twice, and top six go to the playoffs
• Back to base: Telugu Titans return to Hyderabad; Bengaluru Bulls return to Bangalore and Jaipur Pink Panthers to Jaipur for PKL Season 7
• Match start time: VIVO Pro Kabaddi League Season VII begins on July 20th with live coverage to begin at 7 pm and match broadcast to begin at 7.30pm on the Star Sports network

VIVO Pro Kabaddi League Season VII – What’s new:

Players and Coaches:

• Siddharth ‘Bahubali’ Desai had a brilliant debut season with U Mumba and will look forward to recreating the magic for his new team - Telugu Titans
• The ‘Showman’ that’s Rahul Chaudhari moves to Tamil Thalaivas playing alongside Ajay ‘Thalaiva’ Thakur
• The season will also see new coaches take to the mat- Anup Kumar for Puneri Paltan and Rakesh Kumar for Haryana Steelers
• With top familiar faces like Ajay Thakur, Rahul Chaudhari and Pardeep ‘King’ Narwal a new generation of breakout stars including Siddharth Desai and ‘Hi-Flyer’ Pawan Shehrawat are gearing up to take VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 by storm

The League:

• The season returns to the original VIVO PKL calendar of July to October, with the league beginning on July 20th and Finals on October 19th, 2019.
• The caravan continues with a focus on an equitable league table in a double round robin format where each team will play every other team twice, and the top six will go to the playoffs
• Each city leg begins on Saturdays while rest days for the team are on Tuesdays
• All home teams get 4 days rest before and after their home legs giving them adequate rest before their home leg
• The home teams play 4 home matches: Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays
• All teams will have played an equal number of games by the half-way mark of the season

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The season opener will see Telugu Titans and U Mumba take to the mat, and both teams will be looking to begin strong and lay down the marker as the team to fear. All eyes in game 1 will be on Siddharth ‘Bahubali’ Desai who is now part of Telugu Titans. He had a phenomenal start to his VIVO Pro Kabaddi career finishing with over 200 raid points at U Mumba last season.

The second game on opening day will be a battle of the champions - defending champions Bengaluru Bulls take on three-time winners Patna Pirates and both will look to get one up on the other and take a step in the direction to winning the trophy again this season. Will the Dubki King Pardeep Narwal’s raiding prowess break some more records, or will Hi- Flyer Pawan Sehrawat, the winner of the league’s Most Valuable Player award in Season 6 lead his team to its first win?

The other highly anticipated matches through the week include the big southern derby between Telugu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas. This has been a high-octane derby for the past two seasons, but this time, ‘the Showman’, Rahul Chaudhari will play for Tamil Thalaivas, and will pair up with his close friend and captain Ajay ‘Thalaiva’ Thakur.