PKL 2018: Defending champions Patna to take on Thalaivas in season 6 opener

Patna pirates have an edge over Tamil Thalaivas in Pro Kabaddi league as they have defeated Tamil Thalaivas in two of their 3 encounters in PKL 5

In Match 1 of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL 2018) season 6, defending champion Patna Pirates will lock horns with Tamil Thalaivas at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Tamil Thalaivas will try to forget their poor PKL 5 stats at home and give a tough fight to Pirates. In Vivo PKL 5, Thalaivas were one among the two teams who failed to win a single home game. 

Patna Pirates captain Pardeep Narwal said the team had prepared well for the new season and aimed to win the title again. "This season I have worked on multiple strategic moves to counter our opponents. For Patna Pirates, one of the most challenging teams we believe is Puneri Paltan because their defence is very strong. I look forward to the season and I am going to take the trophy home this time," he added.

Meanwhile, after a poor outing in PKL 5, Tamil Thalaivas is primed for a good show. Captain Ajay Thakur said the team had a nice balance and can be expected to challenge the other outfits."In the previous season our team composition was heavy on youngsters. So, if it happened that I was not on the mat, taking instant decisions was tough. This year, the team has a perfect balance of young and experienced players, we have Manjeet Chillar, Jasvir Singh and Sukesh Hegde who can take phenomenal decisions at the spur of the moment during the match," he added.

 
Patna Pirates team news
 
The defending champions tried to maintain a balance between their attack and defence by picking some crucial players in Pro Kabaddi League Auctions 2018 but it will be interesting to see whether they are in-form or not. They have included the all-rounder Kuldeep Singh in their ranks. In PKL 5, Pardeep Narwal of Patna Pirates had a great support in Monu Goyat last season as Monu finished the season being the 4th leading raid point scorer of the season with 191 raid points. Now, with Monu moving to Haryana Steelers for a whopping Rs 15 million, Patna Pirates have roped in Bengal Warriors second-in-command Deepak Narwal as a main support in raiding. Deepak scored 85 raid points in 16 games in PKL 5 at a raid strike rate of 45. He was also the part of Pirates when they won their first Pro Kabaddi League title in season 3.
 
Tamil Thalaivas team news
 

On the other hand, Tamil Thalaivas had K Prapanjan as a support raider, who contributed 123 raid points in PKL 5 and finished the season as 11th leading raid point scorer. Jasvir Singh (338 Raid Pts) and Sukesh Hegde (284 Raid Pts) have 250+ raid points to their name in PKL. Other option is Surjeet Singh, who had an injury prone season last time around but still managed to score 59 raid points at a raid strike rate of 40 for debutant Haryana Steelers.

Meanwhile in defence they have Manjeet Chhillar and Amit Hooda in their ranks. Amit Hooda was the leading tackle point scorer of Tamil Thalaivas with 61 tackle points at a tackle strike rate of 52. While Manjeet had an injury prone PKL 5, where he scored 47 tackle points in 15 matches at an average of 3.1 tackle points per game.

 
 
Ajay Thakur vs Pradeep Narwal
 
Ajay Thakur and Pardeep Narwal are one of the most successful raiders of PKL. Pardeep Narwal was the leading raid point scorer of PKL 5 with 369 raid points, while Ajay Thakur was the 3rd leading raid point scorer of the season with 213 raid points. In Overall PKL history, Pardeep Narwal is the 2nd leading raid point scorer after Rahul (666 raid pts) with 625 raid points whereas Ajay Thakur is ranked 3rd with 529 raid points to his name.

Match 1: Patna Pirates vs Tamil Thalaivas match details and live streaming info
Date: 7^th October 2018, Sunday
Time: 8:00 pm (IST)
Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai

Tamil Thalaivas vs Patna Pirates match will be broadcasted on Star Sports, Star Sports 2 HD in English Commentary and Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 HD Hindi in Hindi Commentary.
 
Patna Pirates vs Tamil Thalaivas: Starting probable seven
 
Patna Pirates: Jawahar (right corner), Tushar Patil (Right In), Kuldeep Singh (Right cover), Pradeep Narwal (Center), Manish (Left cover), Deepak Narwal (Left in), Jaideep (Left corner)
 
Tamil Thalaivas: Amit Hooda (right corner), Sukesh Hegde (Right In), Darshan J (Right cover), Jasvir Singh (center), Manjeet Chhillar (Left cover), Ajay Thakur (Left In), D Gopu (Left corner)