Haryana Steelers have been one of the most consistent Pro Kabaddi League teams in the last three seasons. The Sonipat-based franchise made it to the playoffs of season five and season seven, while it took the wooden spoon home in the sixth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League. Rambir Singh Khokhar and Surender Nada served as the mentors in the first two seasons, while that role was taken up by former Patna Pirates captain Rakesh Kumar for PKL 2019.
The Steelers had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Patna Pirates in their maiden playoff appearance. In the previous season, they lost to another former PKL winning team U Mumba in Eliminator 2. The Haryana Steelers performed well in the league stages of both seasons. However, the team struggled under the pressure while playing in the knockout matches.
The picks
Vikash Kandola has been the face of the franchise since their first season. The upcoming raider has scored 420 raid points across three seasons and has played a massive role in the team's success so far. The team management signed the deadly duo of Mohit Chhillar and Surender Nada in the fifth season, but Sunil has emerged as the best defender of Haryana Steelers so far in the PKL.
The right corner defender has donned the Haryana Steelers jersey 43 times in the last two seasons, and in those games, he has amassed 96 tackle points. With five High 5s, Sunil is the second automatic pick for the Haryana Steelers all-time seven after Vikash Kandola.
The debate
The fans would remember how Haryana Steelers broke the bank to sign Monu Goyat ahead of the sixth season of Pro Kabaddi League. Unfortunately, despite the presence of former PKL winner Goyat, the team finished at the sixth position in Zone A, winning only six of their 22 matches. Even though the team's performance was not up to the mark in season six, Monu ended the league with 160 points in 20 games. He narrowly missed out on the Top 10 of the raiders' leaderboard. Hence, Monu Goyat will be the secondary raider of the all-time seven of Haryana Steelers.
There's a three-way battle between Vinay, Prashanth Kumar Rai, and Wazir Singh for the final raiding slot. Starting with Vinay's numbers first, the upcoming raider scored just five points less than Rahul Chaudhari in his debut season last year. Vinay played 23 matches for Haryana Steelers, aggregating 125 raid points with 3 Super 10s.
Veteran Wazir Singh represented the Sonipat-based franchise in its debut season. Singh played a vital role in the team's success, scoring 107 raid points in 21 matches. Despite staying out of the league for two years because of injury issues, Singh troubled the defenders with his running hand touches in 2017.
The third candidate, Prashanth Kumar Rai, played two seasons for Haryana Steelers. He was a part of the team in 2017 and 2019. In both the seasons, Haryana gained a place in the playoffs. Talking about his numbers in the last season, Prashanth scored 91 raid points, which included a couple of Super 10s, and on many occasions, he turned the matches upside down with his phenomenal raids. In the 2017 season, Prashanth registered three Super 10s for the Steelers, finishing with 78 raid points. Since the tall raider played a crucial role in the Steelers' journey to the playoffs in 2017 and 2019, he earns the third raider's spot.
Surender Nada will take up the left corner position since he topped the defenders' leaderboard in 2017, with 80 tackle points in 21 games. He also scored four points in the only game that he played in season six. Dharmaraj Cheralathan is the only player in contention for the corners, but since he can also play in the covers, the veteran player gets the left cover position in this all-time seven. Dharmaraj captained Haryana Steelers in 2019 and scored 43 tackle points in the season. Since the two players are also quite experienced, there are no better options than Nada and Cheralathan to take the defensive unit's two spots.
For the right cover position, again, there are two names. The first is Mohit Chhillar, and the second is Ravi Kumar. Chhillar majorly plays at the right corner, but occasionally he even takes up the cover position. However, since his performance for Haryana was not quite extraordinary in season five, Sunil took up the right corner spot and Ravi Kumar will take the right cover position.
Kumar represented Puneri Paltan for multiple seasons, but his best performance came while donning Haryana's jersey in the PKL. Ravi scored 52 tackle points in 21 games for Haryana, including five super tackles and four High 5s.
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Playing Seven Stats for Haryana Steelers
Left Corner - Surender Nada
Matches - 22, Tackle Points - 84
Left In - Prashanth Kumar Rai
Matches - 32, Raid Points - 169
Left Cover - Dharmaraj Cheralathan
Matches - 19, Tackle Points - 43
Center - Vikash Kandola
Matches - 51, Raid Points - 420
Right Cover - Ravi Kumar
Matches - 21, Tackle Points - 52
Right In - Monu Goyat
Matches - 20, Raid Points - 160
Right Corner - Sunil
Matches - 43, Tackle Points - 96
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