Pro Kabaddi 2019 is only a few days away as the fans and the teams gear up for yet another thrilling and exciting season of kabaddi. This league has revolutionized the sport besides bringing about some new heroes to the country.
The likes of Pardeep Narwal, Rahul Chaudhari, Rohit Kumar, Fazel Atrachali and many more superstars owe their fame to the Pro Kabaddi League.
The most amazing thing about this league is that every year we do see a lot of changes in the teams. On the back of a special retention policy, a plethora of players turn up for different franchises in different editions of the Pro Kabaddi League. While few franchises have always struggled to get the right combination, teams like U Mumba have always hit the bull’s eye.
This year, they have assembled a defense-oriented squad which will make raiding a difficult task for the best of raiders in this competition. Here, we look at three players who could be expected to have a top season for U Mumba.
#3 Dong Geon Lee
Korean raider Dong Geon Lee is one of the most experienced players of the U Mumba raiding department in PKL 2019. Lee has played 28 matches in the Pro Kabaddi League and was a part of the runners-up Gujarat Fortune Giants last year. The foreign star registered his first Super 10 in season 6 after having a silent season with Tamil Thalaivas in 2017.
In this season, Dong Geon Lee will be pairing up with the likes of Athul MS, Rohit Baliyan and Vinoth Kumar to support the team’s raiding unit and will be backed to produce a good show on the offensive front.
#2 Fazel Atrachali
Iranian defender Fazel Atrachali will once again guard the left corner for U Mumba in PKL 2019. The dash specialist has been one of the most successful players in PKL history, having won the championship twice besides finishing as part of the the runners-up side on two occasions. Last year, U Mumba dominated their opponents in the first round until UP Yoddha handed them a heartbreaking loss in the play-offs.
This year, Atrachali will hope that the Mumbai franchise betters its season six performance and wins the championship for the first time since 2016. Atrachali has recorded 17 High 5s in Pro Kabaddi, which speaks volumes of his consistency.
Apart from that, the beast has also executed 15 super tackles to save his team from an all-out and overall, has notched up 235 points from 79 matches, the most for a foreign defender in the history of the league.
#1 Sandeep Narwal
Bought for a hefty price of ₹89 lakh, Sandeep Narwal will be U Mumba’s top player to watch out for in Pro Kabaddi League 2019. The burly all-rounder, who made his name as an aggressive raider, has become more of a defender now as he rarely makes use of his raiding skills.
Interestingly, Narwal came to the limelight after his match-winning performance for Patna Pirates in a game against his current team, U Mumba. Given that U Mumba have a relatively weak raiding attack, we might see Sandeep raid more often this year.
He has an experience of having played 101 matches in Pro Kabaddi League. The block specialist has picked 229 raid points and 254 tackle points which shows how talented Sandeep is on both fronts.
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