PKL 2021: Former U Mumba coach Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan joins Jaipur Pink Panthers

Jaipur Pink Panthers roped in Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan as their new head coach for PKL 2021. The inaugural Pro Kabaddi League champions decided to part ways with Srinivas Reddy.

Sanjeev Baliyan was part of the U Mumba team in the previous season along with Upendra Kumar. The duo helped the Mumbai franchise finish third in PKL 7 and will like to emulate the same success with their new team.

Baliyan nurtured young stars like Abhishek Singh, Ajinkya Karpe and Arjun Deshwal at U Mumba. Abhishek Bachchan, who owns Jaipur Pink Panthers, will be hoping the same with his new franchise in PKL 2021.

Who is Jaipur Pink Panther’s new coach Sanjeev Baliyan?

He is an Arjuna awardee and a formed Indian player. The veteran coach is no stranger to winning titles. Baliyan has won the Kabaddi World Cup and Senior National Kabaddi Championship.

He was also part of the coaching team that took the Patna Pirates to the PKL title in the third season. Besides this, he also coached the Railways team that won the 67th Senior National Kabaddi Championship.

Baliyan’s first target will be to build a strong team at the PKL 2021 auctions slated from August 29 to 31.

All you need to know about PKL 2021 auctions

This will be the first PKL player auction in nearly two years. The PKL 2021 players auction will see domestic, overseas and new young players divided into four categories – A, B, C and D.

Within each category the players will be further divided as ‘Defenders, Raiders and All-Rounders’.

The base price for Category A is INR 30 lakhs, while Category B is INR 20 lakhs. For Category C and D the base prices are INR 10 lakhs and INR 6 lakhs respectively. The PKL 2021 total salary purse available for each franchise is INR 4.4 crore.