PKL7 Auctions Day 1 (Zone B): How teams stack up for next season

Zone B have been the title winners, ever since the teams were divided into zones. The simplified assumption that most franchises take out from this is - let's spend money in getting that lead raider who will win the tournament, and thus compromise on defense.

Zone B have been the title winners, ever since the teams were divided into zones. 

This auction, except for a few irrationalities, franchises were willing to stay corrected, but have they put up a best squad this season?

How Zone B shapes up at the end of Day1.

Patna Pirates

If there was one weakness in this team, it was the right cover and left corner combination of Vikas Kale and Jaideep. This year they seem to have addressed it by getting an ace defender like Nada in their camp. Clearly a strategy to relieve their lead raider Pardeep Narwal of additional burden of captaincy; what was shocking was they got a back up for Nada in Jaideep (which is pretty good) but in doing so, they seem to have forgotten to find that support raider for Pardeep.

• Total Players: 12 (9 Indians, 2 Iranians, 1S.Korean)
• Purse: 82.08 Lakhs (min 6 players to be bought)
  • Right Corner: Jawhar, Hadi Oshtorak
  • Left Corner: Nada, Jaideep
  • Right Cover: 
  • Left Cover: Vikas Jaglan
  • Left Raider: Pardeep, Jan Kun Lee
  • Right Raider: Mohammad Esmail Maghsodlou
  • Reserve: Purna, Mohit, Naveen, Bitnu

Assessment: They definitely need a lead right raider and a lot of interesting names in Rakesh Narwal, Selvamani exists given their purse. But day 2 their main priority is to fill the right cover with a solid defender - a position which lost many games for patna in previous season

Bengal Warriors

Bengal Warriors signed B C Ramesh as their head coach for this season. His experience to make a defense work is well documented, and maybe that was the strategy behind Bengal building a young defensive unit. Bengal bid aggressively for Nabibaksh and were clear they wanted this player at any cost, this bidding did a lot of good to other Iran players, with franchise started to notice this talent tool. If this trend has to continue, Nabibaksh at 77 should deliver more value than Jang Kun Lee (who will be seen outside of Bengal colours for the first time) and also show his flashes of brilliance in defending.

• Total Players: 10 (8 Indians, 2 Iranians)
• Purse: 122.08 Lakhs (min 8 players to be bought)
  • Right Corner: Baldev,
  • Left Corner: Rinku, Adarsh
  • Right Cover:
  • Left Cover: Jeeva Kumar, 
  • Left Raider: Prapanjan, Ravindra Ramesh Kumawat
  • Right Raider: Maninder Singh, 
  • Reserve: Sahil, Mohammad Esmail Nabibaksh, Mohammad Taghi Painmahalli

Assessment: Bengal warriors replaced Surjeet with Jeeva, but will Jeeva be as threatening as Surjeet? Will he mentor Maninder, Prapanjan, and work with a young defense? These are some of the questions that the management has to think. Clearly, he is the right guy (only guy) in this team to do so.

Bengaluru Bulls:

Title winners for PKL 6, came into the auction with only one plan, hold their FBM card and get their left cover back, and that is exactly how the auction summed up for Bengaluru bulls (apart from a few consolation NYP purchases). They still have the same issues as last time, with a non-existent right corner, and a left raider, but who cares as long as Rohit and Pawan are doing this job for them and also scoring points while raiding. The interesting trivia about this team is that it has picked two nepali players while the rest were scouting for the Iran and S Korean players pool.

• Total Players: 12 (10 Indians, 2 Nepalis)
• Purse: 76.49 Lakhs (min 6 players to be bought)
  • Right Corner: 
  • Left Corner: Amit Sheron
  • Right Cover: Ashish Sangwan
  • Left Cover: Mahender
  • Left Raider: 
  • Right Raider: Rohit, Pawan
  • Reserve: Bunty, Ankit, Mohit, Sumit, Ajay, Lal Manohar, Sanjay Shrestha

Assessment: They need to get a few value buys to fill their defense on day 2, but otherwise with Rohit and Pawan their quality of raiding is definitely the best in this Zone.

Telugu Titans:

Telugu Titans definitely do one thing well, they light up the auction room with their super fast bidding and in do so got Siddharth Desai at a whooping 145 Lakhs. If the rumours about his injury is to put to rest, he is a valuable player at 120 Lakhs. 145 was slightly above his fair value but a franchise which released a match winner like Rahul had to spend this premium to add power to their raiding unit. Their defense looks sorted, with an interesting NYP left cover and a good backup right corner (from the NYP). It also created history by picking the first ever player from USA

• Total Players: 12 (10 Indians, 2 Iranians, 1 American)
• Purse: 50.09 Lakhs (min 6 players to be bought)
  • Right Corner: Abozar, Aakash Choudhary
  • Left Corner: Vishal, Krushna Madne
  • Right Cover: Farhad
  • Left Cover: Manish
  • Left Raider: Desai, Kamal
  • Right Raider: Aarman, Rajneesh
  • Reserve: Ankit, Jennings

Assessment: Technically they seem to have filled their spots and also looks like a franchise to watch out for new talent, but the key question that may bother them is who is their captain and how will they not over rely on Siddharth Desai (and avoid injuries). Also, their raidiing unit lacks experience in crucial moments of the game.

Tamil Thaliavas

Tamil Thaliavas has been the talking point of every auction, first time for exhausting its quota of 25 players and second time in building a team with full of experience. Both time, they had an unsuccessful outing owing to lack of support to their captain, Ajay. This time they have addressed it by expressing faith in Rahul and also filled its corners with reasonable players. On paper they definitely look like a stronger raiding unit and with a much improved defense than last year.

• Total Players: 12 (10 Indians, 1 Iranians, 1 Kenyan)
• Purse: 78.29 Lakhs (min 6 players to be bought)
  • Right Corner: Mohit Chillar
  • Left Corner: Ran Singh
  • Right Cover: Ponparthiban
  • Left Cover: Manjeet Chillar
  • Left Raider: Rahul, Hemanth
  • Right Raider: Ajay
  • Reserve: Victor Oboyo, P Subramanian, M Abhishek, Anand, Milat Shiebak

Assessment: One thing that this team should do is win matches early on and keep maintaining that momentum; another critical aspect for this team is to manage their home leg matches without injuries to its key players (especially defenders - as there are no backups). Day 2 will see them buy a lot of backups for the defenders.

UP Yoddhas:

UP Yoddha has been the luckiest team in this Zone, both times barely qualifying to the playoffs with some luck riding their way. But one thing they seem to be doing well is how they go about buying their raiders, clearly this year too, they had displayed this skill. With two FBMs on Shrikanth Jadhav and Rishank they managed to get 2 out of 3 raiders in thier squad back. Their lead raider however this time is Monu Goyat, who was at 10% above his fair price (which is reasonable)

• Total Players: 11 (9 Indians, 1 Iranians, 1 Bangladeshi)
• Purse: 79.67 Lakhs (min 7 players to be bought)
  • Right Corner: Nitesh Kumar
  • Left Corner: Sachin
  • Right Cover: Amit
  • Left Cover: 
  • Left Raider: Rishank, Shrikanth
  • Right Raider: Monu
  • Reserve: Mohsen, Md Masud Kareem, Aarman, Aashish, Azad

Assessment: UP have compromised on the experience of Jeeva and gone with a young unit that has worked well for them, their raiding seems complete too, Narender is a player they want to sign back on day 2.