Who doesn’t want to see Pradeep Narwal back in action. He is the most successful raider in the history of the PKL and an integral part of the Patna Pirates team for 2021
According to some reports the 8th season of the league might start in the second half of 2021.
The season was cancelled in 2020 due to covid and now it has been more than a year since the fans saw their players back in action.
Poor Performances By the Patna Pirates in the Last Two Seasons A Massive Worry!
Pradeep Narwal was the third best raider in the 7th edition of the league, which was played from 20th July 2019 till 19th October 2019. Narwal had scored 317 raiding points. But he was not supported by any other raider.
Patna Pirates is the most successful team in the history of the league. They have won the championship thrice. They won season 3, 4 and 5. The reason for Pirate’s success in the past has been their all round game.
Pradeep Narwal has always been their star raider but in the seasons they won, he was ably supported by the likes of Monu Goyat, and his defence. In the last couple of seasons, though, he has been their sole player. Even after getting the extra responsibility of leading the side, his performance has been top notch.
Despite his brilliant performances, Pirates have not been able to qualify for the play offs in the last couple of seasons.
What Went Wrong In Season 7?
As stated above, Narwal had the third highest raid points in the league but there wasn’t a single other raider who scored more than 100 raid points. Pirates had shown faith in Jang Kun Lee, the star raider from Korea, but he performed extremely poorly with only 65 raid points.
Patna only had a squad of 16 players for the last season, hence they did not even have many options in the raiding department. Vikas Jaglan and Hadi Oshtorak brought some raid points here and there but those were not enough.
If Patna’s raiding was an issue, their defence did not do well either. Jaideep who was their main defender had a below par season. He scored only 50 tackle points. Jawahar Dagar and Neeraj Kumar too did not do well. Patna’s weak defence meant that Pradeep used to sit out of the game for most time during the match, as the defence could not revive him timely.
Patna Pirates PKL Team 2021 And Auction Approach For Season 8
Patna Pirates would definitely look to retain their star player Pradeep Narwal. They might have to shed 70-100 lakhs to retain him. They would look to build a team around Narwal. There is no other player in current Patna squad who could be retained. Patna might use their FBM for Vikas Jaglan who is a good all rounder.
Patna Pirates would like to get some quality raiders in their side, who could support Narwal. They might go for Nitin Tomar, Shrikant Jadhav or Ajay Thakur. Thakur could be a gamble but his experience can come useful for Pirates.
Patna needs to get in some good defenders as well. They might look towards Vishal Bhardwaj, if Telugu Titans does not retain him. They might also go again for Surendra Nada who was part of their squad last season but was ruled out before the season because of an injury.
There is no news yet on purse available to teams so it’d be exciting to see the auction strategy of the Pirates.