More than 400 players were up for grabs at the recent auction. A few teams were lucky enough to find the right balance while others missed out on their primary targets.
As a result, a handful of sides this season have a dilemma on their hands – the curse of a lopsided squad. These teams have some supremely talented raiders in the squad but on paper, their backbone doesn’t look as strong as they would have envisioned.
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Also read: Pro Kabaddi 2017 Season 5: Five teams with the strongest defence
On that note, let’s take a look at five teams who will head into this season with a below average defensive line up.
Bengal Warriors
The Warriors finished second from bottom last season and the fact remains that the Bengal side desperately need a defensive leader. Their principal defender this season will be former U Mumba man, Surjeet Singh. While Singh has no doubt improved massively as a player, expecting him to deliver week in week out is over ambitious.
At U Mumba he had Anup Kumar and Jeeva to guide him. At Bengal, he’ll have to make all the chief decisions. Bengal also have Ran Singh in their line-up but he isn’t an out and out defender. If they are to shrug off their poor form, Surjeet and co. will need to produce some herculean performances.
Bengaluru Bulls
The Bulls were another team that had to be content with a place in the bottom half of the table in season 4. On paper, compared to the 11 other teams, Bengaluru look the most vulnerable.
They spent heavily on their raiders, leaving them weak defensively. Ravinder Pahal will lead the Bulls this season. The corner is arguably among the best defenders in the league, but when has kabaddi ever been about one man?
A player who performs at his best under the guidance of a captain, Pahal will have no one to look up to this time around. His teammates will expect him to lead the line and under his tutelage, an inexperienced defence will hope they don’t get run over on the mat.
Telugu Titans
Not a single Titans defender features on the list of top 10 defenders from last season. Star man, Rahul Chaudhari has always emphasised defence being the reason they’ve crumbled in crucial situations. Once again, for the fifth consecutive season, Chaudhari will have to make do with an unpredictable defence.
Rohit Rana will serve as the primary defender for the Telugu Titans. Alongside him, the likes of 20-year-old Vinod Kumar and Amit Singh will hope to prove the critics wrong. Titans do not have a poor defence per se, they simply possess defenders who haven’t taken the league by storm.
U Mumba
Mohit Chhillar, Surender Nada, Vishal Mane, Jeeva Kumar – all these players once plied their trade for Mumbai. Anup Kumar’s side have suffered the most from having to participate in those two auctions as one by one, their best defenders left for greener pastures.
Their defence, which once resembled those unbreachable forts of Maharashtra, is now nowhere to be seen. Veteran, Joginder Narwal, will lead Mumbai’s defence. He has Iranian, Hadi Oshtorak, who did well in the final stages of Season 4 at Patna Pirates, for company. Narwal was the 10th best defender last season but he had Manjeet and Ravinder Pahal for company at Pune, both of whom surpassed him in the number of tackles made.
Once again, though, all eyes will be on Anup Kumar. Can he get the best out of this U Mumbai side?
Gujarat FortuneGiants
Gujarat will need a lot of Fortune if they are to establish themselves as Giants in season 5. It’s ironic that despite the fact that they have the best defender in the league, defensive depth eludes them.
Iranian powerhouse, Fazel Atrachali will lead Gujarat’s back line and will, in all probability, shine. But he needs his inexperienced teammates to do the same. Fazel has 32 games under his belt but leaving him aside, the other five defenders, in total, have played just 25 matches between them. Two of them will be making their debuts while Sunil Kumar has only played a single game in the league so far. The odds are heavily stacked against the FortuneGiants.
