Sachin Tanwar and Mohammadreza Chiyaneh are costliest players in PKL Season 11

Indian kabaddi player Sachin Tanwar and Iran’s Mohammadreza Chiyaneh emerged as the costliest players on day one of the player auction for the 11th season of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

Along with Sachin and Chiyaneh, six other players got bids in excess of INR 1 crore in the player auction.

The auction will continue on August 16 and going by the intense bidding the first day saw, the second day might also see the same intensity.

Sachin, a raider, was in Category A and was bought by Tamil Thalaivas for INR 2.15 crore, the costliest player while all-rounder Chiyaneh will play for Haryana Steelers after the franchise secured the Iranian’s services for INR 2.07 crore.

Chiyaneh was the first to go under the hammer on the first day of the auction and there were no surprises with teams going gung-ho to secure his services. Haryana Steelers finally pipped other franchises to offer the Iranian INR 2.07 crore. The bidding for Chiyaneh started from a base price of INR 30 lakh.

Pawan Sehrawat, who was the PKL’s costliest player overall at INR 2.605 crore in the auction last year, was retained by Telugu Titans for INR 1.725 crore. Although he was the costliest player in the last two auctions, the teams did not go for an aggressive approach, given his injuries and performances in the last two seasons. A slow start slowly picked up steam with U Mumba, Bengaluru Bulls and Telugu Titans in the fray but ultimately Titans secured Sehrawat’s services.

Defender Sunil Kumar will play for U Mumba after being bought for INR 1.015 crore and now has the tag of being the most expensive Indian defender and third overall in the history of the PKL.

Gujarat Giants roped in raider Guman Singh for INR 1.97 crore while Maninder Singh will don the Bengal Warriorz jersey after the team bought him for INR 1.15 crore, by exercising the retaining option. Maninder will team up with Iranian defender Fazel Atrachali at Bengal Warriors. The defender was bought by the Bengal franchise for INR 50 lakh.

All-rounder Bharat will play for UP Yoddhas after being bought for INR 1.30 crore while raider Ajinkya Pawar will play for Bengaluru Bulls for INR 1.107 crore. The Bulls also got Pardeep Narwal onboard for INR 70 lakh.

Jaipur Pink Panthers picked up Surjeet Singh for INR 60 lakh while Shubham Shinde went to Patna Pirates for INR 70 lakh.