Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4: U Mumba vs Jaipur Pink Panthers Preview: Match Prediction, Time, Venue, Playing Squads & Live Match Telecast info

By Pragadeesh

Modified Jun 24, 2016 22:23 IST

U Mumba start their season 4 campaign against Jaipur Pink Panthers on Saturday

The much anticipated Pro Kabaddi season 4 will get underway on Saturday at the Sardar Vallabhbhabi Patel Stadium in Mumbai as Anup Kumar-led U Mumba kick off their campaign against Jaipur Pink Panters. It will be interesting to see the progress of the Mumbai team, which looks in new shape compared to the past three seasons.

The team rely on the experienced campaigners Anup Kumar, Rakesh Kumar and Rishank Devadiga. The three heavyweight defenders Mohit Chhillar, Fazel Atrachali, and Vishal Mane, are no longer part of the Mumbai set-up but they recruited the former Puneri Paltan defender Surjeet, who can be very dangerous along with Jeeva Kumar and Rakesh Kumar.

The Abhishek Bachan-owned Jaipur Pink Panthers won the inaugural edition of the league but they were in bits and pieces in the other two seasons. The team which struggled with injuries last year has retained the services of Jasvir Singh and Rajesh Narwal.

They have strengthened their squad by signing the former Mumbai raider Shabeer Bapu but players like Rohit Rana and Ran Singh who failed to impress in defence last time should step up in the current season.

Prediction

The Indian national Kabaddi captain Anup Kumar has been a driving force for U Mumba for the past three seasons. Anup’s presence and calmness in the dying moments have always made a huge difference in the closely fought matches that Mumbai played.

This time, the bunch of players are different in all the positions and the team want their captain to showcase his tactical supremacy than ever before. Rishank Devadiga who has 106 raid points in season 3, was one of the players to be retained along with Anup Kumar. Gurvinder Singh who was part of Patna’s title-winning campaign last year is surely the player to watch out for.

Mumbai will miss the services of the expensive player in the season 4 auction, Mohit Chhillar, who has been very solid in the right corner of the defence for the past three seasons. The missed trio Mohit Chhillar, Fazel Atrachali and Vishal Mane have 217 successful tackle points between them.

Jaipur, on the other hand, needs a fit and rejuvenated Jasvir Singh who looked completely out-of -sorts and a different player from the first season. The skipper who spent most of the season on the sidelines due to a shoulder problem is set to fire on all cylinders.

The ever consistent Rajesh Narwal has single-handedly propelled his team's fortunes with his dashing raids and super tackles in some of the nail-biting encounters. The promising Shabeer Bapu who hasn’t got many opportunities in the Mumbai colours can be effective for the Panthers with his super raids.

Mumbai always starts on a bright note as they were defeated just twice in the league matches in season 2 and season 3. Once they find the winning momentum it is very difficult to stop them and most importantly luck has always favoured them in the crunch situations.

The 2015 champions, who played 48 matches in three seasons have lost only 9 times and they have a win percentage of 75%. Mumbai and Jaipur have faced 9 times and won 4 of each(the match ended in a tie at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in 2014).

It’s a very difficult call to make as both teams look for a good start but I go with Mumbai, considering the initial dominance they had at the start of the previous seasons and more importantly they play under their home fans(as Pune’s home matches are shifted to Mumbai).

Squads

U Mumba:

Defenders: Jeeva Kumar, Vikas Kale, Sunil Kumar, Manoj Dhull, Surjeet

All-rounder: Rakesh Kumar, Sourav V

Raider: Gurvinder Singh, Mohammed Aruduzzaman Munshi, Suresu Kumar, Surendra Singh, Mohammed Zakir Hussain, Tuhin Tarafder, Anup Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Nitin Kumar, Vikash Kumar.