With just 2 days left for the highly-awaited Pro Kabaddi League 2018, captains of the 12 teams unveiled the trophy on Friday in Chennai. The event was attended by Surjeet Singh from Bengal Warriors, Joginder Singh Narwal from Dabang Delhi, Sunil Kumar from Gujarat Fortunegiants, Surender Nada from Haryana Steelers, Anup Kumar from Jaipur Pink Panthers, Pardeep Narwal for defending Champions Patna Pirates, Girish Ernak from Puneri Paltans, Vishal Bharadwaj from Telugu Titans, Rishank Devadiga from UP Yoddha, Dharmaraj Cheralathan from U Mumba.
Pardeep Narwal of Patna Pirates who was the leading raider of last season said that he will never stop doing his famous dubki. Narwal said that he has worked on multiple strategic moves to counter the opponents. “For Patna Pirates, one of the most challenging teams we believe is Puneri Paltan because their defence is very strong. I look forward to the season and I am going to take the trophy home this time,” he said.
The league which will start on October 7, will go on till January 5. Talking about the duration of the tournament, UP Yoddha skipper Rishank Devadiga said when the season was shorter, there were more chances of injuries as the players had to take the mat on consecutive days. He added that with this format, the challenge would be to maintain a certain level of fitness consistently which is what UP Yoddha is training for.
The inaugural ceremony of Season VI will be a star-studded affair, with eminent sports icons and film personalities expected to attend. Shruti Hassan and Vijay Sethupathi will be seen cheering for their favourite teams along with fans on opening day.
With many firsts this season, the caravan will travel to Kochi for the play-offs and the grand finale will be held in Mumbai on the 5th of January, 2018.
In the opening match of the season, Tamil Thalaivas led by team India captain Ajay Thakur will take on Patna Pirates. Thakur said that last year Thalaivas had too many youngsters but this year, they have a perfect squad.
“In the previous season our team composition was heavy on youngsters. So, if it happened that I was not on the mat, taking instant decisions was tough. This year, the team has a perfect balance of young and experienced players, we have Manjeet Chillar, Jasvir Singh and Sukesh Hegde who can take phenomenal decisions at the spur of the moment during the match,” he said.