PKL Season 6 proved to be a defining campaign for UP Yoddha for their sheer grit and determination. Though we stuttered at the second-last hurdle, the thrilling comeback in the latter stages and the rise of new stars have now paved the way for a confident, new-look Yoddhas in the seventh edition of the tournament.

With the auction for the upcoming season starting this Monday, we will be looking to strengthen our squad with the apt buys that will complement the six players that we have retained. The Yoddhas that will be wearing our club colours this season as well are:

Nitesh Kumar

Sachin Kumar

Amit Narwal

Arkam Shaikh

Aashish Nagar

Azad Singh

Nitesh has been rewarded with a retention for his sensational outings for us last season where he scored 101 tackle points - the most in the history of the PKL. Sachin Kumar was also instrumental in our journey to the top three with his all-round display on the mat.

We have opted to retain quite a few defenders which means that the management will go all out to solidify the squad with high-profile raiders. And with quite a high number of consistent raiders in the mix, UP Yoddha are expected to sign a couple of household Kabaddi names.

Rahul Chaudhari, Siddharth Sirish Desai and Monu Goyat are some of the few top names that we are expected to bid for in the next week's auction. A reliable all-rounder in the form of Nitin Tomar and an experienced old guard like Surender Nada can also prove to be smart buys.

The Yoddhas can also use their 'Final Bid Match' card at the auction which may see our players from the previous campaign rejoin us. It will be interesting to see on which of our former stars, the management decides to use their trump card.

An eventful campaign last time around has provided us with a foundation to build a strong squad for the coming years and set the tone for our retained players to be the core of the side. The upcoming auction will be a brilliant platform for us to build a strong squad and challenge for the title next season.