Pro Kabaddi League Season 6: Jaipur and UP announce their captains

New skippers for UP and Jaipur

Pro Kabaddi League franchise UP Yoddha and Jaipur Pink Panthers have announced their captains for the sixth edition.

India’s all-rounder Rishank Devadiga who plays as a raider for the Yoddhas was one of the players retained by the franchise has been given the responsibility to lead the side this season. On the other hand, former Indian skipper Anup Kumar popularly known as ‘Captain Cool’ will lead the Jaipur Pink Panthers this year after a successful stretch with UMumba coming to an end with the franchise letting their captain go in the auction pool.

A new role for Rishank Devadiga

This would be the first instance when Rishank will lead a Pro Kabaddi side. After representing his home city UMumba for the first four seasons where he formed a defiant raiding partnership with his skipper Anup Kumar and impressed with a 77-point performance in the competition which played a major role for the franchise to make it to the finals. After the ex-skipper Nitin Tomar was acquired by Puneri Paltan, Rishank was the front-runner for the captaincy role.

He was bought by UP Yoddha in the last edition of PKL and retained him for a whopping amount of 1.11 Crores this year, making him one of the biggest buys of the season. With a total tally of 449 points, Rishank holds the seventh spot in the all-time raid points list from just 80 matches.

Here is the squad for UP Yoddha:

Raiders:

Rishank Devadiga (C) – Rs 111 lakh

Prashanth Kumar Rai – Rs 79 lakh

Bhanu Pratap Tomar – Rs 8 lakh

Shrikant Jadhav – Rs 37 lakh

Sulieman Kabir – Rs 8 lakh

Rohit Kumar Choudary – Rs 8 lakh

Azad Singh – Rs 6.6 lakh

Defenders:

Nitesh Kumar – Rs 6.6 lakh

Amit- Rs 8 lakh

Jeeva Kumar – Rs 45 lakh

Sachin Kumar – Rs 19.2 lakh

Nitin Mavi – Rs 8 lakh

Vishav Chaudhary – Rs 5 lakh

All-rounders:

Sagar Krishna – Rs 14.25 lakh

Narender – Rs 8 lakh

Seong Ryeol Kim – Rs 8.2 lakh

Arkam Shaikh – Rs 6.6 lakh

Pankaj Singh – Rs 6.6 lakh

Also Read: Promising youngsters in Pro Kabaddi Season 6

‘Captain Cool’ to lead PKL franchise for 6th consecutive time

Meanwhile, this would be the second stint of captaincy for Anup Kumar who has previously led UMumba for 5 years. The former Indian skipper is a calm and composed head who is equipped with every skill required to take the team to a triumph.

The World Cup-winning skipper has lead UMumba to its first-ever title in season 2 after finishing as runners-up in the opening season. He has been a pole behind the success of the national team and his accolades include a gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and 2014 in Incheon and also won the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup held in Ahmedabad, India. With 489 raid points and 57 tackle points, Anup Kumar sits among the top 5 in all-time points scorers of Pro Kabaddi League.

Here is the squad for Jaipur Pink Panthers: