Bengaluru, Aug 31: Ahead of the eighth season of the Pro Kabaddi League, two-time finalists Gujarat Giants made some big buys at the recently-concluded PKL auctions.
After a two-year gap due to the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming season of the PKL is set to get underway in December.
The Giants, who retained two elite players and three players from the Retained Young Players list, signed eleven players from PKL auction. The Gujarat team paid a total of Rs. 4.06 crores to bolster their squad for the eighth season of PKL.
The Giants grabbed the second-highest scoring defender in the history of PKL, notching up 'The Hawk’ Ravinder Pahal for a whopping Rs. 74 lakhs. The Gujarat team also added veteran defender Girish Maruti Ernak to their squad.
The New Young Players (NYP) draft was carried out on August 29, while the overseas and Category A players and Category A (domestic players) went under the hammer on August 30. The auction for the players in categories B, C and D took place on August 31.
Over 190 players were sold to the 12 franchises teams with as many as 10 Final Bid Match (FBM) cards being used. The auction witnessed teams spend Rs 48.22 Cr in total, across the various categories of players being auctioned.
Following the auction the Gujarat team have a 16-member squad for the upcoming season of the PKL.
With the three-day auction done and dusted, here’s how the Gujarat Giants squad looks like ahead of the eighth season of the Pro Kabaddi League.
RETAINED PLAYERS
Player | Position | Retention Type |
Parvesh Bhainswal | Defender | Elite Retained Player |
Sunil Kumar | Defender | Elite Retained Player |
Harmanjit Singh | Raider | Existing New Young Player |
Ankit | Defender | Existing New Young Player |
Sumit | Defender | Existing New Young Player |
PLAYERS BOUGHT IN AUCTION
Player | Position | Category | Bought For |
Ravinder Pahal | Defender | Category A | Rs. 74L |
Ajay Kumar | Raider | Category C | Rs. 10L |
Pardeep Kumar | Raider | Category C | Rs. 10L |
Girish Maruti Ernak | Defender | Category B | Rs. 20L |
Rathan K | Raider | Category C | Rs. 25L |
Harshit Yadav | Raider | Category C | Rs. 10L |
Maninder Singh | Raider | Category C | Rs. 10L |
Hadi Oshtorak | All Rounder | Category B | Rs. 20L |
Mahendra Ganesh Rajput | Raider | Category C | Rs. 15L |
Sonu | Raider | Category B | Rs. 30L |
Soleiman Pahlevani | Defender | Category C | Rs. 11.5L |