Puneri Paltan didn’t have a great run in the previous season. Though the team qualified for the playoff stages after winning 12 out of their 22 matches and finishing at sixth place in the standings, they were knocked out in the Eliminator.
They were bested by U.P. Yoddha by 42-31. Their raiders Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat have shed light on their disappointing show in the last edition. Both of them believe that their seniors did not perform well for the team and that they could not get their support.
However, Inamdar and Goyat are confident that they have got a better squad for the upcoming season and they will be able to turn the tables.
Aslam was 10th in the leaderboard with 169 raid points whereas Mohit was 11th with 159 raid points. To put pay to their raiding woes, Puneri Paltan roped in Mohammad Nabibakhsh for INR 87 lakh in the PKL auction.
Aslam said while talking to Sportskeeda, “We needed a good raider to support us. Last season, a support raider was not there. Only we two (Aslam and Mohit Goyat) were raiding. We have a got option now in the form of Nabibakhsh.”
Mohit added: “Aslam is there with me. Last season also, I and Aslam did a majority of the raiding for the team. Our seniors did not perform well. We got the chance and we performed well for the team. We have a young raiding group again. This time, we have Nabibakhsh as well so the team’s raid attack has become stronger.”
Aslam added that they needed one senior player to handle them and he is hopeful that Fazel Atrachali will take that role.
“Young players are the same who played last season. They have been retained. We needed one senior player who could handle us, and we got Fazel Atrachali. We are bonding with him well.”
Puneri Paltan will begin their PKL 9 campaign against Patna Pirates on Saturday.
Puneri Paltan squad: Aslam Mustafa Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, Aditya Tushar Shinde, Akash Santosh Shinde, Pankaj Mohite, Shubham Nitin Shelke, Fazel Atrachali, Sombir, Badal Taqdir Singh, Abinesh Nadarajan, Sanket Sawant, Alankar Kaluram Patil, Balasaheb Shahaji Jadhav, Rakesh Bhalle Ram, D Mahindraprasad, Harsh Mahesh Lad, Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh, Govind Gurjar
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