Former champions U Mumba decided to release all its players ahead of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) with an aim to build from the scratch. And at the auction, they made it to the headline after snapping Iran’s Fazel Atrachali for a whopping INR 1 crore. Fazel with this became the highest paid foreigner in the PKL since tournament’s beginning. Besides him, Dharmaraj Cheralathan emerged as the second highest paid player for U Mumba. Patna Pirates Team in Pro Kabaddi League 2018.

U Mumba has had a good first three seasons. The Mumbai-based franchise after finishing runner-up in the inaugural season won the title in 2015, the second edition, by defeating Bengaluru Bulls in the final. In the third edition, the team once again finished as runner-up. However, they had a disappointing fourth and fifth season by their standards and failed to go past the first round.

As U Mumbai aim for their second PKL title, the squad is a balanced mix of experience and young players. At the auction, U Mumbai think-tank spent generously on some known faces and the had to pick many players from the New Young Players (NYP) category. They picked six players from the aforementioned category. Bengal Warriors Team in Pro Kabaddi League 2018.

U Mumba Squad for PKL Season 6:

Raiders: Abhishek Singh (INR 42.8 lakh), Siddharth Sirish Desai (INR 36 lakh), Abolfazl Maghsodlou (INR 21.75 lakh), Vinodh Kumar (INR 22.5 lakh), Darshan Kadian (INR 12 lakh), Rohit Baliyan (INR 12 lakh), R Sriram (INR 12 lakh), Arjun Deshwal (INR 8 lakh), Gaurav Kumar (INR 6.6 lakh). Defenders: Fazel Atrachali (INR 100 lakh), Dharmaraj Cheralathan (INR 46 lakh), Rajguru (INR 12 lakh), Rohit Rana (INR 12 lakh), Hadi Tajik (INR 11 lakh), Surinder Singh (INR 6.6 lakh), Adinath Gavali (INR 8 lakh). All-rounders: E Subhash (INR 6.6 lakh), Shiv Om (INR 6.6 lakh), Ananth Kumar (INR 6.6 lakh) and Mohit Baliyan (INR 6.6 lakh).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 12, 2018 01:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).