The big story for U Mumba last season was how Abhishek Singh took on the role of their lead raider (169 points in PKL7) after being bought at the auction for a mere INR 10L. The mutual respect between player Abhishek and team U Mumba is fantastic to see as the team retained him at 86.5 Lakhs. U Mumba had discovered Siddharth Desai in PKL 6 when they bought him at 36 Lakhs. But as luck would have it, Siddharth moved on from U Mumba to Telugu Titans. Often, the short-sightedness of players to earn a big buck quickly can be detrimental to their long-term success and with it the success of their teams.
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Along with Abhishek they have retained Iranian, Fazel Athrachali - their captain and left corner at INR 121 L. These two retainments have cost them ~48% of their total purse. They come into the auction as the team with the least amount of purse: 194 L and will most likely be shopping only in the back end of the auction or picking up players available at a good value. Will they go for an NYP Right Corner?
The big challenge for U Mumba will be their other very exciting raider from Services Arjun Deshwal. He took his team Red Army to a victory in Inter-Services championship earlier this year. However, Arjun is likely to be on the shopping list of many of the top coaches! So getting a cheap FBM may not be possible. Unless Sandeep Narwal or Surinder Singh - their two right defenders go cheap, early!
U Mumba has really got nothing from the NYPs they carried into the previous season and so are left with having to get potentially 6 new NYPs going into this season. That is often a tough challenge and they may be one of the largest consumers of the fantastic talent coming out of the K7 tournament series! U Mumba will pull another rabbit out of the hat - like in the previous two seasons where they Siddharth Desai and then Abhishek Singh --- who will that value buy be this season? They have also retained Ajinkya Kapre, Harendra Kumar, and Navneet. This year they will also have a change of coach to ex U Mumba player Rajguru Subramanian.
READ MORE : Watch Abhishek Singh raids | U Mumba
Purse left : 193 Lakhs for at least 13 players
Retained Players :
1. Left corner and Captain, Fazel Athrachali (29 points, 121 Lakhs)
2. Lead raider, Abhishek Singh (169 points, 86.5 Lakhs)
3. Raiders, Ajinkya Kapre and Navneet
4. Left Cover, Harendra Kumar
Likely FBM Candidates :
Dhanya
Love sports, especially street sports. What better than working and thinking about Kabaddi. Been a part of Kabaddi Adda since it was just a concept. In another avatar, I'm a neuroscientist.
