The franchise recorded their highest buy in the 2021 PKL Auction when they acquired the all-rounder Rohit Gulia for Rs. 83 lakh.
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The return of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is something that has gripped the world of kabaddi fans yet again. People on social media seemed quite excited about the auctions ahead of the competition. It is an opportunity for the franchise to acquire new players and bolster their respective squads in order to challenge for the title in the upcoming season. For the fans of the Haryana Steelers, it has been an auction to remember so far. The Steelers have vastly improved their squad on paper with ten new additions at the Pro Kabaddi League Auction 2021 which was held in Mumbai from August 29 to August 31.
The New Young Players (NYP) draft was carried out on August 29, while the overseas and Category A players and Category A (domestic players) went under the hammer on August 30. The auction for the players in categories B, C, and D took place on August 31. Season 8 of the PKL which had to be postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been rescheduled and is all set to start in December this year.
The Steelers had finished in fifth place in the 2019 season of the PKL. The franchise recorded their highest buy in the 2021 PKL Auction when they acquired the all-rounder Rohit Gulia for Rs. 83 lakh. They also added to their overseas player contingent when they bagged the Iranian duo of Mohammad Esmaeil Maghsodlou (Raider) and Hamid Mirzaei Nader (All-rounder) for Rs. 13.2 lakh and Rs. 12.1 lakh respectively
The other seven additions to the Steelers at the PKL auction included the likes of all-rounder Rajesh Narwal (Rs. 10 lakh), all-rounder Brijendra Singh Chaudhary (Rs. 55 lakh), all-rounder Ajay Ghanghas (Rs. 10 lakh), defender Vikas Jaglan (Rs. 20 lakh), defender Ravi Kumar (Rs. 27.5 lakh), defender Surender Nada (Rs. 20 lakh) and defender Rajesh Gurjar (Rs. 10 lakh).
The franchise had already retained the likes of Vikash Khandola, Vinay, Vikas Chillar, and Chand Singh from season 7 of the Pro Kabaddi League that was held two years ago in 2019.
More than 450 players had gone under the hammer at the auction, as confirmed on the Pro Kabaddi League website before the event. The 12 competing sides had released a combined total of 161 players ahead of the new season and were in need of building brand new squads. Most of these released players had been added to the pool for the auction. The pool also comprised athletes from the domestic field and the New Young Players. Players from the top eight ranked teams of the senior national kabaddi championships of the last two seasons and overseas players were part of the massive pool as well.
There were certain rules put in place by the organisers when it came to the entire bidding procedure. Each franchise could spend a maximum of Rs. 4.4 crores in the auction and could avail a maximum of two Final Bid cards. That, however, depended on the number of players that they had already retained from the previous edition of the competition.
