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Bengal Warriors won the seventh edition of the Pro Kabaddi League. However, after winning PKL 7, the Warriors have been quite inconsistent. They finished 11th in the 12-team points table last season, recording only eight wins in 22 matches.
Before that, the Kolkata-based franchise attained the ninth position in the final standings, with nine wins from 22 games. Courtesy of the team's declining form, the management decided to make some changes to the squad this time.
They retained only the top performers from the last two seasons and let go of the players who were not up to the mark. The Warriors have formed a stellar squad for PKL 10, and here are three reasons why they can regain the trophy in the 2023/24 season.
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#1 Bengal Warriors have a game-changer in the form of Maninder Singh
Quite a few kabaddi fans were surprised when the Bengal Warriors announced the release of Maninder Singh ahead of the PKL 10 Auction. Singh had been the backbone of the team since the fifth edition. He has scored raid points consistently for his franchise, which is why it was baffling to see him being released.
Luckily, the Bengal Warriors managed to re-sign him at the Pro Kabaddi 2023 Auction. They used the FBM card to get Maninder Singh back in their squad for a whopping ₹2.12 crore.
As far as Maninder Singh's numbers in Pro Kabaddi League are concerned, the star raider has earned 1,244 points in 122 matches. Out of them, 1,231 have come via raiding. He has scored 63 Super 10s in his career, while also executing 42 super raids.
Having a champion raider like him in the squad will benefit the Bengal Warriors a lot. He also has an enormous amount of PKL captaincy experience under his belt. It should not be a surprise if the Warriors name him as their skipper for the 10th season.
#2 Bengal Warriors have some talented supporting raiders in their squad now
Maninder Singh can score the majority of the points for the team, but if he gets tackled down, he needs someone to revive him quickly. Bengal team owners roped in a couple of talented players, who can play the supporting raider's role.
The Warriors have all-rounder Nitin Rawal in the squad, who has earned 142 raid points. They also have Shrikant Jadhav, who scored 129 points last season for Bengal. Besides, the squad also features some upcoming stars like Vishwas S, Suyog Gaikar, R Guhan, and Parshant Kumar in the raid unit.
#3 Experience in the defense
Bengal Warriors let go of Girish Maruti Ernak this year, but they have shown faith in Vaibhav Garje and Shubham Shinde's talents. Right cover defender Garje scored 31 points last season, while Shinde earned 44 points in the right corner position.
All-rounder Nitin Rawal can take up the left corner position. He plays in that position for the Indian kabaddi team. The Warriors also have a talented left cover Shreyas Umarband. Overall, the defense is quite experienced and can take down any raiding unit in the competition.
