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The VIVO Pro Kabaddi League Season 6 auctions took place on the 30th and 31st of May. The auctions saw a total of 422 players getting under the hammer out of which 181 players got divided into 12 teams.
Monu Goyat became the costliest player after being bought by Haryana Steelers for a whopping ₹151 lakhs. The crore club was also joined by Rahul Chaudhari, Deepak Hooda, Rishank Devadiga and Nitin Tomar.
Prashanth Rai became the most expensive player on the second day of the auctions after UP Yoddhas bought him for a hefty amount of ₹79 lakhs.
Fazel Atrachali became the priciest overseas player after U Mumba bought him for ₹100 lakhs. U Mumba's franchise gave us a lot of shockers during the auctions. Not buying back Anup Kumar was the biggest of them.
U Mumba won the Pro Kabaddi League in season 2. Till season 3, they were the fiercest team in the league. The season 4 auctions saw a lot of excellent Mumba players getting divided into other teams. That was when the grip of the Mumbai team's started to loosen. They did not even touch the qualifiers list last season.
Mumbai's franchise had Anup Kumar as team's captain and mentor since season 1. In season 6, it would be quite disappointing to see no Anup Kumar in U Mumba. Coach Edachery Bhaskaran also left the team to join Tamil Thalaivas.
Here is an expert analysis of U Mumba's full squad:
Raiders
There are nine raiders in total on the team. The Iranian Abolfazl Maghsoudlou is one of them. Abol has previously played in teams like Patna Pirates and Dabang Delhi.
He played his debut season from U Mumba where he did not take a single point in the three matches played by him.
Switching to Patna's team gave sufficient chances to prove himself. He is the top Iranian raider in the league.
Rohit Baliyan, who has previously played for Delhi's franchise will be seen donning U Mumba's orange-black t-shirt. He played well in Delhi and is expected to do the same for Mumba this time.
Patna's former player Vinod Kumar will also play for Mumbai. He played well during the initial days of season 5 but was not able to seal a spot in the team's starting seven throughout the season.
Even though Vinod is a good player, he will have to focus on his skills if he wants his team to win. Other young players including Darshan Kadian, R. Sriram, Siddharth Desai, Gaurav Kumar, Arjun Deshwal and Abhishek Singh will also play for U Mumba.
If we give a close look at the raiders on the team, it is quite disappointing. U Mumba is known for bringing up raiders like Rishank Devadiga and Anup Kumar. The team will have to work really hard throughout the season if they want to fix a spot in the finals.
#2 Defenders
There is a total of eight defenders on the team. U Mumba went overboard with Iranian players. Name them and you will find them. Fazel Atrachali is one of the defenders on the team. Being the costliest overseas player in the history of VIVO PKL, he is seamless.
Fazel makes tackling look like child's play. He played as a part of Patna Pirates and Gujarat Fortune Giants where he showed his best game. He has played every final since his debut in the league.
The list also has Hadi Tajik. He was first seen playing for Iran's team in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. He played really well in the world cup and chances are that he will put up a great show in season 6.
Young and aggressive Surinder Singh will also play for Mumba once again. The experienced Dharmaraj Cheralathan, who led Patna to the finals in season 4 will also be seen defending U Mumba.
The list also has the masked man Rohit Rana. He has played for big teams like Telegu Titans and inaugural champions Jaipur Pink Panthers in the past.
Other young players like Rajaguru, Anil, and Adinath Gawali will also play for Mumbai's franchise. All in all, the defenders of U Mumba are indisputably the best on paper.
#3 All-rounders
There are just three all-rounders on the team. It is quite obvious that there is no big all-rounder sticking out for Mumbai's franchise. This might affect U Mumba badly.
They should have bought at least one experienced or reliable all-rounder but weren't able to do so. The list of all-rounders consists of Shiv Om, E Subash, and Mohit Baliyan. They should have inculcated more supportive players.
They will have to work overtime in order to win. Altogether U Mumba's all-rounders' list is nowhere near impressive.
Mumbai's franchise is clearly misbalanced. They don't have any big raider or all-rounder. Instead of going for a proper team, they went overboard with the defenders.
Their decision to leave Anup Kumar could backfire on them. He is a perfect example of skills and experience and not having him around can incur a huge loss to the team.
The coach of U Mumba is also an Iranian which is really intriguing. It would be interesting to see Fazel and Hadi play under their National coach.
Altogether, Mumbai's team could have been way better if they had made some wise choices regarding their raiders and all-rounders.
What do you think about U Mumba's team this season? Sound off in the comments section below!
