All-Time Playing 7 of the Bulls- One of the most exciting teams in PKL!

The 2018 Pro Kabaddi League  champions Bengaluru Bulls have been one of the most dominant teams in PKL history. They began their PKL journey with the likes of Manjeet Chhillar and Ajay Thakur as the faces of the franchise. The Bulls finished fourth in the inaugural Pro Kabaddi season, while they made it to the finals of the second edition, falling short to Anup Kumar's U Mumba.

The team struggled to replicate its past performance in season 3 and season 4, registering only seven wins across two seasons. They narrowly missed out on a playoff spot in the fifth season, but they topped the Group B points table in season 6 and soon captured the championship. The Bulls could not retain their title in the PKL Season 7 and managed to finish in a respectable fourth position. Let us have a look at the all-time playing Seven of Bengaluru Bulls.

The picks

Ajay Thakur, Manjeet Chhillar, and Pawan Sehrawat are automatic picks, thanks to their incredible contributions to the franchise.

Thakur scored 122 raid points in the first PKL season, whereas Chhillar was the season's best defender. Ajay finished season two as the third-best raider, and Chhillar backed him up a total of 107 points.

The Randhir Singh-coached outfit struggled to do well in the league until Pawan Sehrawat rejoined the team in season six. After a brief stint with Gujarat Fortunegiants, Sehrawat came back to the Bangalore-based franchise and scored 282 points in the sixth season and blew away all the defensive units in the tourney. Pawan's form continued in season seven as he finished with 360 points to his name.

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The debate

While the top two raiders of the team were easy picks, the third raider's choice is a tricky one. Surjeet Narwal led the team's raiding department in season 3, but he managed only 40 points in 12 games. Do-or-die raid specialist Rajesh Mondal also proved to be a good raiding option, but none of the raiders could match Rohit Kumar's performance.

The Bengaluru Bulls captain played a phenomenal role in Patna Pirates' first title win. Surprisingly, the Patna-based franchise did not retain the tall raider. He moved to Bengaluru in season 4 and was the team's most successful raider, scoring 93 points in 14 matches. Kumar finished second on the raiders' leaderboard in season 5 with 219 points to his name, and in the sixth edition of PKL, he supported Pawan Sehrawat to perfection.

Defense

Shifting our focus to the defensive unit now, Manjeet Chhillar will take the left cover position and will also be the team's primary all-rounder. The deadly combination of Surender Nada and Mohit Chhillar once played at the right corner and left corner positions of Bengaluru Bulls. However, Nada did not have an excellent outing for Bengaluru. On the other side, Mohit finished at the third position on season four's defenders' leaderboard.

Mohit Chhillar takes the right corner position, and supporting him at the left corner will be the veteran defender Dharmaraj Cheralathan. The former Bengaluru Bulls star played a massive role in Bengaluru's success in the first and second seasons. He accumulated 81 tackle points in 31 games for the Bulls.

The last position up for grabs is the right cover. There are two candidates for this spot - Ashish Kumar and Somvir Shekhar. Ashish has scored four High 5s for Bengaluru Bulls, and the team management has always backed the all-rounder to perform well. The right cover defender scored 40 tackle points for the Bulls in the season six, whereas he was their best defender in the third season of PKL.

Ashish has also worked on his raiding skills. The diving thigh hold specialist has aggregated 46 raid points for Bengaluru and has made some crucial contributions to the team's total when needed. Somvir Shekhar showed much promise in season 3, finishing with 34 points in 14 matches. He had a solid ankle hold grip, but he could not perform consistently in PKL. Ultimately, Bengaluru Bulls released him from their squad.

A few players closely missed out on a place in this all-time seven apart from the names mentioned above. Ravinder Pahal donned the Bengaluru Bulls jersey in season five and scored 52 tackle points in 19 matches. However, he returned to Dabang Delhi K.C. in season six. Mahender Singh has been a consistent performer for Bengaluru Bulls in the last few years, but Manjeet Chhillar has performed exceptionally well at the left cover. Kashiling Adake scored 84 points for the Bulls in season six, but he did not play much for Bengaluru like Ajay Thakur, Pawan Sehrawat, and Rohit Kumar.

Playing Seven Stats for Bengaluru Bulls

Left Corner - Dharmaraj Cheralathan
Matches - 31, Tackle Points - 81

Left In - Pawan Sehrawat
Matches - 71, Raid Points - 673

Left Cover - Manjeet Chhillar
Matches - 32, Total Points - 229, Tackle Points - 91

Center - Ajay Thakur
Matches - 28, Raid Points - 201

Right Cover - Ashish Kumar
Matches - 83, Total Points - 157, Tackle Points - 111

Right In - Rohit Kumar
Matches - 79, Raid Points - 568

Right Corner - Mohit Chhillar
Matches - 14, Tackle Points - 47

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