Pro Kabaddi League auction: A few hours after losing his most expensive player honour, India captain Pawan Sehrawat on Monday reclaimed the costliest player tag in the history of Pro Kabaddi League. Sehrawat, who recently guided India to a Gold medal win at the Asian Games 2023, became the highest-paid player when he was picked by Telugu Titans for Rs 2.605 Crore on Day 1 of the PKL 10 auction.
A total of 595 players are set to go under the hammer in a two-day PKL 10 auction. Coming into the bidding war, Sehrawat held the honour of being the most expensive player in PKL history as he was picked for Rs 2.26 crore in PKL 2022 auction. But Iran's Mohammadreza Shadlou went past the mark on Monday before Sehrawat reclaimed the throne. Shadlou was picked by Puneri Paltan for 2.31 Crore. However, his stay at the helm was cut short by the Indian raider, who was signed for 2.605 Crore by Telugu Titans. Apart from the Titans, Haryana Steelers, UP Yoddhas, and Bengaluru Bulls also bid for the Indian star.
Notably, Maninder Singh also went past the 2 Crore hurdle and was the third most expensive player of the day. He was picked for 2.12 Crore by the Bengal Warriors. Iran captain Fazel Atrachali went for 1.6 Crore to Gujarat Giants, who also picked Mohammad Nabibakhsh, another Iranian for 22 lakh.
For Shadlou, U Mumba and Gujarat Giants started the bidding process before the Paltan and Titans joined the party. As his former team Patna Pirates did not exercise the right of Final Bid Match (FDM), the Iranian all-rounder was picked by Paltan. On picking Shadlou, Puneri Paltan coach BC Ramesh said, "We needed someone on the left. We came with the mindset of picking him up at the auctions".
