A new look Bengal Warriors team led by Surjeet Singh is all set to begin their campaign in the fifth season of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) against Telugu Titans in Hyderabad on August 2.
The 18-member strong squad, unveiled here on Tuesday, has a number of new recruits. Surjeet, who donned the U Mumba colours last year, and former Jaipur Pink Panthers players Maninder Singh and Ran Singh are some of the new faces of the side.
The league, which has expanded to a dozen teams this year, begins on July 28. The Kolkata Leg will be held from September 1 to 7.
Bengal Warriors have retained two players -- Jang Kun Lee (Korean super raider) and Ravinder Kumawat (a young turk with a bundle of talent).
Jang Kun Lee has been with the Warriors since the inaugural season, one of the only four players to play for the same team for all five seasons, and is also the highest paid player in the team commanding Rs 80.3 lakh followed by Surjeet Singh with Rs 73 lakh.
The team has brought in 2002 Asian Games gold medallist K.K. Jagadeesha as coach. For the army man, who could not realise his PKL dream in the only season he donned the Jaipur Pink Panthers colours, it is a great opportunity to achieve his aspirations as a coach.
"I want to share my knowledge with the players. We have been doing our here for the last 40-45 days and we are taking care of all minute aspects of coaching and training. We avoided drafting injured players. Our maximum attention has been on fitness. We are also working on team combination, skill addition and recovery that will sustain us in the tournament," Jagadeesha said.
The team's CEO Sandip Tarkas said: "With this new look team under a new coach, we are poised to give our best performance till date and have our best shot to winning the League".
Squad:
Surjeet Singh (Right Cover and Captain), Jang Kun Lee (Raider), Ran Singh (All-rounder), Maninder Singh (Right Raider), Bhupinder Singh (All-rounder), Deepak Narwal (Raider), Rahul Kumar (Right Cover), Young Chang Ko (Left Cover), Vinod Kumar (Left Raider), RavindraKumavat (Raider), Virendra (Right Corner), AmearesMondal (All-rounder), Anil Kumar (Raider), Kuldeep (Right Raider), Sundeep Mallik (Right Cover), Srikanth Tewthia (All Rounder), Sashank Wankhede (Left Cover), Vikash (All-rounder).