The Pro Kabaddi auction came to a close on Tuesday with teams spending over Rs 45 crore in total to complete their squads ahead of the eighth season.

Jaipur Pink Panthers and Telugu Titans were the highest spenders in auction spending Rs. 4.22 crores each while U Mumba were the lowest spenders at Rs 3.77 crores.

On Monday, Pardeep Narwal had become the most expensive player in the league’s history as UP Yoddha signed him for Rs 1.65 crore. Siddharth Desai received the second-highest bid as he was the only other player whose services were acquired by paying a fee of over Rs 1 crore as Telugu Titans got him for Rs 1.3 crores.

Advertisement

On Tuesday, Arjun Deshwal attracted the highest bid of Rs 96 lakhs from Jaipur Pink Panthers making him the third-most-expensive player in the auction.

The Pro Kabaddi season is expected to begin in December 26 months after the last season ended in October 2019.

Here’s what every team looks like at the end of the auctions:

Bengal Warriors

Bengal Warriors squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Rinku Narwal Manjoj Gowda K Maninder Singh
Parveen Mohammad Nabibakhsh Ravindra Kumawat
Vijin Thangadurai Rohit Rishank Devadiga
Rohit Banne Sumit Singh
Darshan J Sukesh Hegde
Sachin Vittala Akash Pikalmunde
Abozar Mohajer Mighani

Money spent: Rs 4.2 crores

Strengths: Very strong raiding department. Having already retained Maninder Singh and Nabibakhsh, the addition of Hedge and Devadiga adds great variety.

Advertisement

Weaknesses: Not many, but the cover defence could be an area of concern.

Bengaluru Bulls

Bengaluru Bulls squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Saurabh Nandal Banty
Mohit Sehrawat Pawan Kumar Sehrawat
Amit Sheoran Dong Geon Lee
Ziaur Rahman Abolfazl Maghsodlou
Mahender Singh Chandran Ranjit
Mayur Jagannath Kadam GB More
Ankit Deepak Narwal
Vikas

Money Spent: 4.05 crores

Strength: Raiding department is very strong and they can rival any team on that front. In More, Narwal, Ranjit, there is solid support for Sehrawat. Also, the Bulls have managed to retain many players from last season, so there should be a good understanding in the team.

Weaknesses: The defence lacks a bit in terms of experience and the youngsters will have to take step up.

Dabang Delhi

Dabang Delhi squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Sumit Balram Neeraj Narwal
Mohit Vijay Naveen Kumar
Mohammad Malak Sandeep Narwal Emad Sedaghat Nia
Joginder Narwal Manjeet Chhillar Ajay Thakur
Jeeva Kumar Sushant Sail
Vikas

Money Spent: 3.98 crores

Strengths: Plenty of experience, especially in defence. The Thakur-Naveen combination looks promising. Naveen can allow Thakur to take fewer risks and stay on the mat. Thakur’s presence will ease pressure on Naveen.

Advertisement

Weaknesses: While experience is great, players like Manjeet Chhillar and Sandeep Narwal haven’t been at their best in recent seasons.

Gujarat Giants

Gujarat Giants squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Sumit Hadi Oshtorak Harmanjit Singh
Ankit Sonu
Sunil Kumar Mahendra Rajput
Parvesh Bhainswal Rathan K
Soleiman Pahlevani Maninder Singh
Ravinder Pahal Harshit Yadav
Girish Ernak Pardeep Kumar
Ajay Kumar

Money Spent: 4.06 crores

Strengths: Strong defence with quality players in all key roles. A coach who can get the best out of youngsters.

Weaknesses: No proven raider. Rajput and Ashish Kumar are talented but haven’t delivered on the promise yet.

Haryana Steelers

Haryana Steelers squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Chand Singh Hamid Mirzaei Nader Vikas Chhillar
Ravi Kumar Rohit Gulia Vinay
Surender Nada Vikas Jaglan Vikash Khandola
Rajesh Gurjar Rajesh Narwal Mohammad Maghsodlou
Brijendra Singh Chaudhary

Money Spent: Rs 3.83 crores

Strengths: With Nada, Ravi Kumar and Rajesh Narwal, defence looks quite decent. The trio also bring in loads of experience. Khandola is one of the finest raiders in the league.

Advertisement

Weaknesses: Lack of support for Khandola. Unproven players in key positions.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Defenders All-Rounder Raider
Elavarasan A Sachin Narwal Sushil Gulia
Pavan TR Nitin Rawal Mohammad Amin Nosrati
Vishal Deepak Niwas Hooda Amir Hossain Mohammedmaleki
Amit Hooda Naveen
Sandeep Dhull Arjun Deshwal
Dharmaraj Cheralathan Ashok
Sumit Amit Nagar

Money Spent: Rs 4.22 crores

Strengths: Good squad balance. Quality all-rounders in Rawal and Deepak Hooda gives coach flexibility.

Weaknesses: Young raiding department. The likes of Arjun Deshwal and Naveen have shown promise but they will have to take more responsibility or there will be too much pressure on Deepak Hooda.

Patna Pirates

Patna Pirates squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Neeraj Kumar Sahil Mann Rajveersinh Pratap Rao Chavan
Sunil Mohammadreza Chiyaneh Mohit
Sourav Gulia Monu
Sandeep Jang Kun Lee
Shubham Shinde Prashanth Kumar Rai
Sachin
Guman Singh
Monu Goyat

Money Spent: Rs 3.87 crores

Strengths: Depth in the raiding department and plenty of variety in the raiding ranks.

Advertisement

Weaknesses: Defence seems weak both in quality and quantity. The Pirates have only five specialist defenders.

Puneri Paltan

Puneri Paltan squad

Defender All-Rounder Raiders
Sanket Sawant Govind Gurjar Pankaj Mohite
Balasaheb Shahaji Jadhav Victor Obiero Pawan Kumar Kadian
Hadi Tajik E Subhash Mohit Goyat
Vishal Bhardwaj Rahul Chaudhari
Baldev Singh Nitin Tomar
Sombir Vishwas S
Karambir
Abhinesh Nadarajan
Sourav Kumar

Money Spent: Rs 4.03 crores

Strengths: Raiding department looks very strong with good mix of youth and experience. Pune have two quality corner defenders and have plenty of option for cover areas.

Weaknesses: Rahul Chaudhari and Nitin Tomar have struggled in recent seasons. With their place in the team far from guaranteed, coach Anup Kumar will have to manage their egos in case they are not picked.

Advertisement

Tamil Thalaivas

Tamil Thalaivas squad

Defender All-Rounder Raider
Sagar Anwar Saheed Baba K Prapanjan
M Abhishek Sourabh Tanaji Patil Manjeet
Himanshu Sagar B Krishna Bhavani Rajput
Mohammad Tuhin Tarafder Santhapanaselvam Ajinkya Ashok Pawar
Surjeet Singh Athul MS
Sahil

Money Spent: 3.86 crores

Strengths: In Surjeet Singh, Tamil Thalaivas have the best cover defender in kabaddi. Young raiders Prapanjan and Manjeet had top seasons and could forge a good combination.

Weaknesses: Inexperienced defence could leave Surjeet Singh with a lot to do. The raiding department beyond the top two raiders doesn’t inspire confidence.

Telugu Titans

Telugu Titans squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Akash Dattu Arsul Ankit Beniwal
Akash Choudhary Rajnish
Manish Rakesh Gowda
Prince Hyunsu Park
Abe Tetsuro Siddharth Desai
Surender Singh Rohit Kumar
Sandeep Kandola G Raju
Ruturaj Koravi Amit Chauhan
Adarsh T
C Arun

Money Spent: 4.22 crores

Strengths: Raiding department looks strong with Desai, Rohit Kumar and Rajnish. Rohit Kumar has proven to be a really smart leader and the Titans would benefit from his presence. Corner defence looks good with Sandeep Kandola and Ruturaj Koravi.

Advertisement

Weaknesses: Cover defence could be a weakness. Surender Singh is a good defender but has the reputation of being slightly rash at times. He will have to cut down errors especially when playing with more inexperienced players in defence.

U Mumba

U Mumba squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Harendra Kumar Ajinkya Kapre Navneet
Fazel Atrachali Mohsen Maghsoudlou Jafari Abhishek Singh
Rinku Pankaj Ajith V Kumar
Sunil Sidhagavli Ashish Kumar Sangwan Jashandeep Singh
Ajeet Rahul Rana

Money Spent: Rs 3.77 crores

Strengths: A top defender and captain Fazel Atrachali and a good battery of all-rounders.

Weaknesses: The defence and raiding department though seems a bit lacking in depth. There will be a lot of pressure on the likes of Atrachali and Abhishek Singh. Too much onus on the all-rounders to come good.

Advertisement

UP Yoddha

UP Yoddha squad

Defenders All-Rounders Raiders
Ashu Singh Nitin Panwar Surender Gill
Sumit Gurdeep Mohammad Taghi
Nitesh Kumar Md Masud Karim
Gaurav Kumar Pardeep Narwal
Aashish Nagar Shrikanth Jadhav
Sahil
Gulveer Singh
Ankit

Money Spent: Rs 4.12 crores

Strengths: Pardeep Narwal. Apart from the star signing, UP have done really well to forge a strong support cast. With Shrikanth Jadhav, Surender Gill and Mohammad Taghi, the raiding department looks very strong.

Weaknesses: The defence appears slightly weak and there are too many unproven names. The onus will be on Nitesh Kumar and Sumit to lead the defensive unit.