The much awaited 6th season the PKL 2018 will start on 7th October and it promises to be a great deal bigger than all the last seasons. Patna Pirates take on Tamil Thalaivas in the opening match of PKL 2018 season 6 on 7th October. Due to the Asian Games 2018 the PKL had to be scheuled for later as Anupam Goswami the league commissioner explained. As all the top Kabaddi players from around Asia were representing their countries in the competition. The season 7 will see PKL returning to the July start.
Thalaivas is a Tamilnadu based franchisee and they had a poor season 5 of PKL. However, they consist of many fierce players such as the leader Ajay Thakur. The team mainly consisting of youngsters is led by a capable captain and he is an inspiration to the players. They are also comeback specialists of the PKL. The little victories they had last year cannot be termed as upsets as they beat Gujarat, Bengal and Yoddha and even Patna the eventual champions. Thakur scored 222 total points including raids and defense score. He was vital in scoring crucial points against major teams to achieve close victories to leave a mark among Kabaddi fans. Other players that played a crucial role in achieving those wins and were retained are Amit Hooda, C. Arun, and Anand etc. The highest paid player for PKL season 6 for the Tamil Thalaivas, however, is Ajay Thakur with a whopping fee of Rs 76.23 lakhs for the season.
The three times PKL champions Patna Pirates have retained Pradeep Narwal as their captain for the season 6. This is no surprise for anyone as Narwal was the star performer for the Pirates in the season 5 edition of PKL which they incidentally won. The green and yellow clad team will be hoping for a winning start again this year against Thalaivas under the dubki king Narwal. Some of the other talented players to have been retained are Vijay Kale, Manish and Jawahar Dagar. It should be noted that Patna did not win the league stage last year and finished second behind Bengal. They started shining in the playoffs and continued to register the hat trick of wins.
Here is some key stat
I will go with Telugu Titans on this PKL opener of the 2018 season. This is mainly because they have played better Kabaddi last season than Thalaivas who struggled through most of the season. But this could turn out to be a close call.