The 12 captains are Surjeet Singh (Bengal Warriors), Joginder Singh Narwal (Dabang Delhi), Sunil Kumar (Gujarat Fortunegiants), Surender Nada (Haryana Steelers), Anup Kumar (Jaipur Pink Panthers), Pardeep Narwal (Patna Pirates), Girish Ernak (Puneri Paltan), Vishal Bharadwaj (Telugu Titans), Rishank Devadiga (UP Yoddha), Dharmaraj Cheralathan (U Mumba).
Won’t stop ‘dubki’
Talking about the dubki, Patna Pirates captain Pardeep Narwal said, “I will never stop doing the dubki. This season, along with the dubki, I have worked on multiple strategic moves to counter the opponents.
“I think Puneri Paltan is one of the most challenging teams; it’s defensively strong.”
Tamil Thalaivas captain Ajay Thakur , talking about the team composition, said, “last season, we had a lot of youngsters. It so happened that when I wasn’t on the mat, it became tough to make quick decisions.
“This year, the team has a balance of young and experienced players — we have Manjeet Chillar, Jasvir Singh and Sukesh Hegde who can take phenomenal decisions quickly during play.”
On the importance of fitness in a 3-month league, UP Yoddha captain Rishank Devadiga said, “earlier, the season was short, and the chance of getting injured was higher with a densely packed schedule.
Enough breaks
“But with a 3-month league, there are enough breaks for players to rest and recover.
“The challenge in a long league is maintaining constant match fitness, which is what we at UP Yoddha are striving for.”
[With inputs from The Hindu]
