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UP Yoddhas have been one of the most consistent teams in the Pro Kabaddi League. They joined the competition ahead of its fifth edition. So far, the Yoddhas have participated in four seasons, qualifying for the playoffs in each but never managing to win the championship.
The team management has made only a few changes to the squad ahead of PKL 2022. Here is the full list of UP Yoddhas players for Pro Kabaddi season nine:
Nitesh Kumar, Surender Gill, Sumit Sangwan, Aman Hooda, Ashu Singh, Nitin Panwar, Shubham Kumar, Rohit Tomar, Anil Kumar, Mahipal Narwal, Durgesh Kumar, Pardeep Narwal, Nitin Tomar, James Namaba Kamweti, Abozar Mighani, Gurdeep Sangwan, Jaideep Sharma, Gulveer Singh, Rathan K, Nehal B Sawal Desai and Babu Murugasan.
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The squad looks solid on paper and Nitesh Kumar is likely to lead the Yoddhas again. Let's take a look at the Yoddhas' probable Playing 7:
UP Yoddhas raiders – Nitin Tomar, Pardeep Narwal and Surender Gill
UP Yoddhas retained their star raider from last season Surender Gill ahead of the PKL 2022 auction. Gill was the fifth most successful raider of season eight, scoring 189 raid points while playing for the Uttar Pradesh-based franchise. He is likely to lead the raid attack this season.
Gill will have the backing of two superstar raiders – Pardeep Narwal and Nitin Tomar. While Pardeep is the number one raider in Pro Kabaddi League history, Tomar knows how to win matches for his team with his raiding skills as well as defense.
Narwal has aggregated 1,348 raid points in 131 PKL matches. He is the only raider with more than 1000 raid points while Tomar has 490 raid points.
UP Yoddhas defenders – Nitesh Kumar, Ashu Singh, Sumit Sangwan and Gurdeep Sangwan
Nitesh Kumar will be the right corner defender for the Yoddhas this season. He was the captain of the team last season. The right corner defender has played with supreme consistency in PKL, scoring 279 tackle points in 91 matches.
Sumit Sangwan is likely to be Nitesh's corner partner. Sangwan has played 46 matches in the Pro Kabaddi League, scoring 139 tackle points.
The cover defenders of the team will probably be Ashu Singh and Gurdeep Sangwan. Both players were with the Yoddhas last season as well. Playing in the right cover position, Ashu earned 49 tackle points and registered one High 5. Gurdeep managed only 17 tackle points but he executed three super tackles.
Since these four defenders played as a unit last season, the Yoddhas will look to stick with them at least for the first few matches in PKL 2022.
UP Yoddhas Predicted Playing Seven - Nitesh Kumar (Right Corner), Sumit Sangwan (Left Corner), Pardeep Narwal (Right In), Surender Gill (Left In), Ashu Singh (Right Cover), Gurdeep Sangwan (Left Cover) and Nitin Tomar (Center).
