Pro Kabaddi League 2019: Telugu Titans, the dark horses of Season 7

Modified Jul 23, 2022 05:22 IST

The Titans' defence would, yet again, hold the key to their playoff spot

The Telugu Titans' management has gone for a major overhaul of the squad and the coaching staff after consecutive fifth-place finishes in Zone B in the past couple of seasons.

While fans of Kabaddi and Telugu Titans would miss the familiar face of Rahul Chaudhari in the yellow jersey, who had been with the side since the inception of the Pro Kabaddi League, some of the newer recruits this season would surely bring a smile to the Titans' fans.

With the announcement of former U-Mumba coach, Gholamreza Mazandarani joining the side as the head coach, it was expected that he would try and bring in a few players from the U-Mumba setup during the auctions.

The recruitment of last season's breakthrough raider, Siddharth Sirish Desai for an astounding price of ₹1.45 crore, created quite a flutter in the Kabaddi circles.

Spending more than a third of their auction purse on Siddharth was quite a clear message of intent from the Titans' management that they were ready to go all out to herald a new future for Telugu Titans.

While the Titans' clearly are a little low on experience, but with a young, talented squad and a determined coach at the helm they could surely go the Gujarat Fortunegiants way and prove their critics wrong.

The Titans' may have made some exciting signings in the raiding department, but they have managed to retain their defensive core from the past season. With the familiar Abozar Mohajermighani and Vishal Bhardwaj manning the corner defense duties and Farhad Rahimi Milaghardan playing the role of an all-rounder cover, the induction of C.Arun in the squad further strengthens their defensive abilities.

While everybody is familiar with the raiding exploits of Siddharth Desai, there is yet another Desai in the squad about whom exciting things are being said.

Suraj Desai, the elder brother of Siddharth, has been a part of PKL in the past - first with the Jaipur Pink Panthers in Season 2, and then with the Dabang Delhi K.C. in Season 5, but his proneness to injury has been a major obstacle in him making his debut in the competition. But this time around Suraj is fit and raring to go, and with Siddharth by his side, there is nothing stopping the sibling-duo from taking the season by storm.