Pro Kabaddi League 9 Auction: Dabang Delhi retains Naveen Kumar and Vijay Malik

Dabang Delhi, the last season's winners, showed a terrific performance against Patna Pirates in the finals to take over their first PKL title in the league's history. 

Two players that made a noteworthy contribution to Dabang Delhi's victory were Naveen Kumar and Vijay Malik, and the franchise for the upcoming season has retained both. 

Naveen Kumar made 13 points in the final against Patna Pirates and significantly contributed to Delhi's victory. Meanwhile, Vijay scored 14 points to assist the franchise in its magnificent triumph. 

Naveen Kumar was Dabang Delhi's top raider scoring a total of 207 raid points in the 17 matches he played in the entire season. His tremendous strike rate of 57.6% in the last edition of PKL made it very clear that he shall be retained in season 9. 

Vijay Malik, one of the stars all-rounders of Dabang Delhi, also scored a reasonable 157 raid points in 24 matches with a decent strike rate of 53.16%.

Given Vijay's and Naveen's outstanding performances in the last season, it shouldn't be a surprise for anyone that the franchise for the upcoming season has retained them. 

Though hopes from the two-star players are incredibly high, only time will tell what they achieve in season 9 of the Pro Kabaddi League. 

PKL 9: Gujarat Giants retains HS Rakesh

Ahead of the PKL 9 auctions, Gujarat Giants has released the name of another one of the retained players. 

In an animated video posted on Twitter and Instagram by the franchise, they announced HS Rakesh's name as one of the retained players. They wrote, "If you want something, come, take something; skilled raider HS Rakesh has been retained for PKL season 9." 

HS Rakesh made his PKL debut last year and played exceptionally well for Gujarat Giants. He became one of the star raiders of the team in his debut season. 

Rakesh played 22 matches for the team and made 140 raid points, including 5 Super 10 and 4 Super Raids.

Every team is allowed to retain up to 6 players, and it hasn't come as a surprise to anyone that Gujarat Giants decided to maintain their star player.