PKL 2018 auction: Fortunegiants, U Mumba, Titans snap up three NYPs

The franchises have largely favoured raiders over all-rounders and defenders from the NYPs available to them.

The Pro Kabaddi auction room in Mumbai.

The draft for the New Young Players (NYPs) — who had a fixed price of Rs 6.6 lakh — set the ball rolling for the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season VI auction.

Only 17 of the 87 in the auction pool of 422 players were picked by the franchises. The rest 70 players have moved into Category D, the players from which have a base price of Rs 5 lakh. The players in categories A, B, C, and D will come up for auction later in the day.

The franchises had the option of picking between one and three NYPs from the Future Kabaddi Heroes programme in their squads.

Gujarat Fortunegiants, U Mumba and Telugu Titans snapped up three NYPs each from the pool. The franchises have largely favoured raiders over all-rounders and defenders from the NYPs available to them. Defending champion and three-time PKL winner, Patna Pirates, which had retained four players before the auction, chose to not pick up any NYP. Bengaluru Bulls, too, refrained from picking any NYPs, having retained only one player (Rohit Kumar, Raider) prior to the auction.

The List

Fortunegiants: Anil (Haryana), Lalit Chowdhury (Raider, Uttar Pradesh) and Vikram Kandola (Left-cover defender from Haryana)

U Mumba: Anil (Left-cover defender), Mohit Balyan (All-rounder, Uttar Pradesh) and Gaurav Kumar (Raider, Uttar Pradesh)

Telugu Titans: Rajnish, Ankit Beniwal, Kamal Singh (Raiders, Haryana)

UP Yoddhas: Arkam Shaikh (All-rounder, Maharashtra), Azad Singh (Defender, Uttar Pradesh)

Tamil Thalaivas: Anand (Raider, Haryana)

Jaipur Pink Panthers: Lokesh Kaushik (Raider, Haryana)

Haryana Steelers: Arun Kumar (Raider, Karnataka)

Dabang Delhi: Naveen Kumar (Raider, Haryana)

Bengal Warriors: Mithin Kumar (Raider, Karnataka)

Puneri Paltan: Amit Kumar (All-rounder, Haryana)