Dynamic Pricing In Auction

With 4 new teams joining the fray and the purse doubled for each team, it was all in or all out for the teams. The auction rules also got complicated as dynamic pricing was included in the rules meaning if you retain a player, his price won’t be fixed as in previous season but will be 10% more than the highest bid player in the same category by the same team.

Let me explain this with an example, Anup Kumar was retained by U Mumba at 35 lakhs but if they buy say Rishank for 70 lakhs, Anup’s price will go up 10% more than that of Rishank. He will be paid 77 lakhs. Both of them are in A category. If a B category player is retained, then his dynamic price will be determined by the highest bid amount of a player in B category by the same team.

This introduced a lot of complications for teams retaining players as they had to take this to account while building the team. Out of the eight teams, seven retained one player and Jaipur Pink Panthers did not retain anyone.

U Mumba- Anup Kumar

No surprises here. Captain cool is, was and will be the talisman for Ronnie Screwvala’s U Mumba. He took the team into three finals and won one of them, he will be looking for redemption as in Season 4 for the first time in the history of PKL his team did not reach the finals.

Puneri Paltan- Deepak Niwas Hooda

Puneri Paltan threw a surprise into the auction by not picking Manjeet Chillar, although the choice to retain Deepak was not wrong. Deepak Hooda is young, dynamic and was the second best raider after Rahul Chaudhary in terms of points scored and best in terms of net points meaning he got caught much less than Rahul. His price went from 35 lakhs to 72.6 as Pune bought Sandeep Narwal for 66 Lakhs

Patna Pirates- Pardeep Narwal

The Dubki Pirate had to be the choice for Patna, he has emerged as the star raider for Patna in two title winning campaigns and that too in two consecutive seasons. He has all the tricks up his sleeve and steals points from the opposition.

Bengal Warriors- Jang Kun Lee

Best performer for Bengal last season was undoubtedly the one to retain. He is a fan favorite and scores points with ease. His price went up to 80.3 lakhs as Bengal bought Surjeet for 73 lakhs

Dabang Delhi- Meraj Sheykh

It was not a season to remember for Dabang Delhi, performance of Meraj Sheykh was the silver lining for them. He raided, defended and captained a side lacking intent and aggression. 

Bengaluru Bulls- Ashish Sangwan

He is a favorite player of coach Randheer Singh who has always supported youngsters, he was retained last season as well. Developing into a good right cover as well as a decent raider. His choice helped Bengaluru Bulls save some money as well because he is a category B player. This enabled them to go 81 lakhs for Rohit Kumar.

The new teams were given the chance of choosing any elite player from the set of Category A players and 3 of the new franchisees chose a player and Uttar Pradesh chose not to choose any and try their hand at the auction leaving them with a purse of 35 lakhs more than any other team just like Jaipur Pink Panthers. Jaipur bought Manjeet Chillar and Jasvir Singh to fill the gap of icon players and UP bought Nitin Tomar for 93 lakhs along with Rishank Devadiga.

Team Tamil Nadu- Ajay Thakur

Star of the World Cup Final , he turned the tides for India in an exciting final with Iran. If he plays all games without injury, tamilnadu has a match winner on their hands.

Team Gujarat- Fazel Atrachali

Fazel- Best left corner in Pro Kabaddi without any doubt. Young, dynamic and ruthless ;makes very few mistakes and will be partnered by Abozar in the right corner. Needless to say Gujarat has the brothers of destruction in terms of defense.

Team Haryana- Surender Nada

Another combo which has never been separated in PKL. Surender Nada -Mohit Chillar. Haryana went into the auction seeking this combination and they bought Mohit Chillar. Although they had a comparatively average season with Bulls last time, they will be looking forward to prove their worth this time around. Watch out other teams!