PKL 11: Hyderabad to host the first leg from October 18 to November 9

The 11th season of the glitzy Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will commence in Hyderabad on October 18. The first match will be played between Telugu Titans and Bengaluru Bulls at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium. U Mumba and Dabang Delhi KC will play the second match of the night.

The 11th season of the PKL will see the games being played in three cities – Hyderabad, Noida and Pune. The three-city tournament’s league phase will end on December 24 and the playoffs will commence later.

The schedule and the venues for the playoffs will be announced later.

Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad will host the PKL 11 from October 18 to November 9 while the season will be played at the Noida Indoor Stadium from November 10 to December 1.

The third leg will be played at the Balewadi Badminton Stadium in Pune from December 3 to December 24.

The first match of the season will see power-packed action with star raider Pawan Sehrawat and Pardeep Narwal locking horns. Sehwarat has been retained by Telugu Titans while Narwal is coming back to the Bengaluru Bulls.

U Mumba’s Sunil Kumar – the most expensive Indian defender in PKL history after being bought for INR 1.015 crore – and Naveen Kumar, one of the star raiders in the league, will be up against each other in the second match of the opening night.

Anupam Goswami, the PKL Commissioner and head of sports leagues at Mashal Sports, who own and run the PKL, said the 11th season of the glitzy league promises to be entertaining. “The match schedule of each PKL season is a tremendously deliberated and painstaking effort to create and drive competitive relevance and engagement for the millions of kabaddi fans rooting for their respective teams as well as the League overall,” Goswami said in a media statement.

He added that the schedules will also help the participating teams plan ahead for the season. “We are sure that the PKL XI match schedule too will start firing the passion and expectations of our fans, and also guide our twelve Teams for their respective strategies and plans for PKL XI,” he added.

The player auction for the 11th season of the PKL took place in Mumbai in August with eight players being sold for over INR 1 crore, a new record in PKL’s history.