League season 6 saw players fetch record sums with as many as 5 players fetching 1 Crore or more than a Crore there were some players who didn’t burn a hole in the team’s pockets and arguably made more impact than the Crore club. We look at 5 players who proved to bargain buys for the teams in the Auctions of PKL 6. The list includes 3 raiders, 1 all-rounder and 1 defender. The list does not include New Young Players.
Pawan Sehrawat: Pawan Sehrawat has been part of PKL since PKL 3 but really came into prominence in PKL 6 with a string of superb performances ending the season with 271 raid points, the most by a raider in PKL 6 establishing himself as arguably as one of the best raiders of PKL. Pawan destroyed defences of PKL using his blistering speed to effect hand touches and also possesses dubki and jump to escape the clutches of the defenders. The 22-year old’s impact can be gauged by his superlative performance in the final where he scored 22 raid points against a strong Gujarat Fortune Giants defence single handedly wining a maiden title for the Bulls. The right raiders tally of 12 super raids was also the most by a player in PKL 6 further highlighting his destructive impact. Pawan’s efforts helped him win the MVP award of PKL 6. Pawan Sehrawat cost the Bulls 5280000, which proved to be a real bargain considering how much other top raiders fetched in the auction and how he outscored them all.
Sid Desai: After the auctions U Mumba were expected to struggle in their raiding department with the likes of Rohit Baliyan, Vinod Kumar, Abolfazl Maghsoudou and Darshan Kadian in their PKL careers had proved that they were good enough to be support raiders and not someone who could score Super 10s consistently, it didn’t matter in the end as the tall and lanky Siddharth Desai stepped up wonderfully to lead U Mumba’s raiding department. The Pune native bamboozled defences with his back and running kicks while his power while escaping was unrivalled in PKL leading him to be named as the best debutant of PKL 6. The 27-year old was the biggest factor in U Mumba making the play-offs after 2 seasons and his below par performance in the Qualifier where he managed 7 raid points was the reason in U Mumba’s defeat. However, after scoring 218 raid points in 21 matches including 12 Super 10s and 10 Super Raids 2nd only to Pawan Sehrawat, Siddharth Desai has highlighted himself as one of the stars of PKL, also the fact that he cost just 3640000 makes him one of the biggest bargains of PKL 6.
Manjeet Chhillar: Manjeet Chhillar was bought by Tamil Thalaivas at the auction for the base price of just 20 lakhs much to the surprise of everyone in the Kabaddi circles. The move proved to be a master stroke for the Thalaivas as Manjeet was comfortably the pick of the Tamil Thalaivas defenders scoring 59 tackle points in 19 matches at an average of 3.11 tackle points per match. The 32-year old played a pivotal role in whatever little success the Thalaivas in PKL 6. “Mighty Manjeet” in PKL 6 also became the first person in PKL history to reach 300 tackle points.
Ravinder Pahal: Ravinder Pahal surprisingly went unsold in the first round of auction being the only “A” category player to go unsold during the first round of auctions. The unthinkable prospect of Pahal going unsold was becoming a real possibility until Dabang Delhi bought back the “Hawk” for a base price of 20 lakhs. The decision proved to be smart one as Pahal along with Joginder Narwal formed one of the best corner combinations of PKL 6. The 28-year old played a big role in helping Dabang Delhi make the play-offs for the first time in PKL scoring 59 tackle points the most by a Delhi player in PKL 6. The Hawk’s brilliant defensive performance made a mockery of his price of 20 lakhs and Pahal is sure to fetch much more in PKL 7.
Rohit Baliyan: Rohit Baliyan was said to be past his best and after struggling with form and fitness in PKL 4 and 5, Baliyan was on the verge of being unsold before thankfully for him, U Mumba took a punt on him signing him for a base price for just 12 lakhs. The decision proved to be an inspiring one as he regularly made the sort of impact that few if any had predicted. The 26-year old proved to be the ideal support raider for Siddharth Desai scoring important raid points making sure U Mumba didn’t miss their lead raider when he was off court or when he was carrying a niggle. The left raider also contributed with timely tackle points, overall Baliyan ended the campaign with 94 raid points with an impressive raid strike of 50%.
