U Mumba
Losing Siddharth Desai before the season began would have put the pressure on the raiders stepping up and we could have expected a few hiccups in that area. Instead, it is the highly-rated U Mumba defense that has come under the scrutiny after some patchy performances.
Fazel Atrachali, Surender Singh, and Sandeep Narwal were only able to get a combined 4 tackle points in the previous match. They will be hoping for a much better show against UP Yoddha especially as their raiding unit has been struggling in recent matches.
The raiding duties have fallen on the shoulders of Abhishek Singh, Rohit Baliyan, and Arjun Deshwal. Abhishek Singh started PKL 2019 out strong but much like last season, seems to be losing steam. We like what we saw of Arjun Deshwal and think he could be given a bigger role to play in the matches to come.
UP Yoddha
The first answer that every UP Yoddha fan will want to know is about the availability of Rishank Devadiga. As of now, we are still not certain he will play although he is said to be nearing full fitness. His absence on the mat has been a disruptive one for UP Yoddha.
They have Monu Goyat and Shrikant Jadhav to take care of the raiding department but having Rishank will give them the three-pronged attack that every successful side in the PKL seems to have.
Monu Goyat has been underperforming his potential in PKL 2019 and he really needs to get his act together. He was traded from the Haryana Steelers after last season and his reputation cannot afford a further bump.
The defense for the UP Yoddha is led by Nitesh Kumar who has been struggling to find support around him. The cover defenders on both sides are inexperienced and keep on making basic errors.
Nitesh Kumar is one of the best defenders in the league and it will be killing him to see his team make the kind of mistakes it has been.
The head to head between U Mumba and UP Yoddha is surprisingly close. They have both won two matches each out of the four that they have played against each other.
U Mumba is down on confidence and could be ripe for the taking but we feel that the return of Rishank Devadiga is a must for UP Yoddha. If he is available, they could win this match and breath some life into the PKL 2019 campaign.
Bet on UP Yoddha to win.