The opening night of Indian Kabaddi Season 6 will see two big fixtures as Tamilnadu plans to knock out three-time champions Patna with a hope to break their form and confidence in the first match itself.
It will be an exciting contest mainly keeping in mind that Patna will come into the match on the back of a five-game unbeaten streak in the closing stages of Season 5 which saw them lift the trophy. But interestingly their last loss came at the hand of Tamilnadu in Match 124 of Season 5. The Tamilnadu also hold an advantage as the host team has won the opening game in four out of the five seasons held so far.
With big names like A. Thakur, M. Chhillar and J. Singh in their ranks, the Tamilnadu have a bank of experience to draw from. They also have good pressure raiders like S. Hegde and S. Singh to further strengthen the raiding department. In defence, A. Hooda will combine with youngsters Darshan and Arun, both of whom impressed in Season 5. All-rounder Pradap also displayed a good fighting spirit in his Season 5 debut and it will be interesting to see how he develops in the coming season.
What could possibly heat up the match is when a man with the most Tackle points in the history of Indian Kabaddi League will lock horns with the man with the most Raid Points in a single Indian Kabaddi league season. Narwal surely holds the edge but one should expect more from one-man-army Chillar.
While taking a look at the key players from both the teams, A. Thakur from Tamilnadu was the third most successful raider in Season 5 with 213 Raid Points in 22 matches and was well known for his never-say-die spirit. D. Narwal had an excellent campaign with Bengal in Season 5 and his return to Patna shows just how much confidence the champions have in his ability. His skillful raiding could see him become more than just a supporting raider to P. Narwal if he gets stuck in.
