India’s second most watched league Pro Kabaddi League is back with its 11th edition from October 18th, 2024.
After an auction that saw records breaking left, right, and center, all 12 franchises are having a new look from the change in players to coaching personnel.
We look at how season 7 champions Bengal Warriorz line-up for the upcoming 11th season of the Pro Kabaddi League:
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Bengal Warriorz PKL Season 10 Review
Despite captain Maninder Singh leading from the front with 153 raid points, Bengal Warriorz failed to make it to playoffs in the 10th season of the Pro Kabaddi League.
They finished seventh with just nine wins from 22 games and earned 53 points in the season.
It was a season of extremes for Bengal Warriors as the Raiders topped the league chart with 504 raid points but the defenders put up a poor show with 204 tackle points, the lowest in the league.
PKL Season 11- Squad Changes
There has been an overhaul in the Bengal squad in terms of both coaching personnel and players. Prashant Surve has joined as the head coach for the season.
Bengal recruited Iranian legend and defensive maverick Fazel Atrachali in the auctions and handed him the captaincy duty. Fazel will also bring stability to the defensive lineup that was haywire last season.
They also got experienced defender and former UP Yoddhas captain Nitesh Kumar to further strengthen the defense.
Bengal Warriorz full squad for PKL 2024
Vishwas S, Nitin Kumar, Maharudra Garje, Sushil Kambrekar, Maninder Singh, Chai-Ming Chang, Akash B Chavhan, Arjun Rathi, Pranay Vinay Rane, Shreyas Umbardand, Aditya S. Shinde, Manjeet, Deep Kumar, Deepak Arjun Shinde, Yash Malik, Fazel Atrachali (C), Nitesh Kumar, Praveen Thakur, Mayur Jagannath Kadam, Sambhaji Wabale, Hem Raj, Sagar Kumar.
PKL 11 Preview- Strength and Weakness
Strength: The biggest strength of Bengal Warriorz is the quality of players leading both raiding and tackling departments. Bengal Warriorz brought back Maninder Singh by exercising their Final Bid Match (FBM) card for INR 1.15 crores. Second on the leaderboard for most raid points in PKL history, Maninder has notched up 1,428 raid points in PKL.
In the defensive area, Bengal signed league’s best-ever defender Fazel Atrachali for just 50 lacs in the auction. Fazel has scored 486 tackle points in PKL history and is one of the most experienced players.
He will be supported by another experienced defender Nitesh Kumar who is ranked sixth in the all-time leaderboard of PKL defenders with 350 tackle points.
Weakness: Bengal Warriorz has two notable weaknesses: a lack of all-rounders and inexperienced raiders.
While Maninder Singh will lead the raiding line-up, Bengal only has Nitin Kumar who has experience of scoring more than 100 points in one season. The likes of Pranay Rane and Vishwas S are still untested in pressure situations.
The last couple of seasons were won by the team with a plethora of all-rounders as the game has evolved to a point where the importance of all-rounders is undeniable.
However, Bengal Warroriz doesn’t have a recognized all-rounder in their ranks.
Sagar Kumar, who was with Patna Pirates in PKL Season 9, is the only recognized all-rounder in the Bengal Warriorz squad.
He has only managed seven tackle points in his PKL career so far and needless to say, Sagar will need to up his game if Bengal Warriorz is to have a more balanced starting 7 with an all-rounder in it.
While this is not to say that there aren’t other players in the squad capable of stepping into the role of an all-rounder, there’s still no denying the fact that on paper Sagar Kumar is the only all-rounder in the squad.
Even in defense, they don’t have a recognized name beyond two corners Nitesh and Fazel. The likes of Vaibhav Garje and Mayur Kadam will have to step up in their positions.
Bengal Warriorz Predicted line-up for PKL 11
Fazel Atrachali (Left Corner)- Captain, Nitesh Kumar (Right Corner), Maninder Singh (Center), Nitin Kumar (Right In), Vishwas S (Left In), Vaibhav Garje (Right Cover), and Shreyas Umarband (Left Cover).