The 'Elite Retained Players,' 'Retained Young Players,' and 'New Young Players' for the 2025-26 season were revealed by the Pro Kabaddi League on Saturday. The player auction is scheduled to take place in Mumbai on May 31 and June 1 of the same year. Although the majority of franchises have managed to keep their most important players, they will also be trying to strengthen their teams through the forthcoming Player Auction for the Pakistan Super League Season 12. Sunil Kumar and Amirmohammad Zafardanesh, both of U Mumba, Jaideep Dahiya, of Haryana Steelers, Surender Gill, of UP Yoddhas, and the Puneri Paltan combo of Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat are among the top players who have been retained by their respective clubs.
In the meanwhile, a total of 83 players were retained across three categories. Twenty-five players were kept in the Elite Retained Players (ERP) category, twenty-three players were retained in the kept Young Players (RYP) category, and thirty-five players were retained in the New Young Players class. It is anticipated that more than five hundred players, including renowned Indian players such as Pawan Sehrawat, Arjun Deshwal, Ashu Malik, and Devank Dalal, who served as the top raider in the PKL 11 season, will be sold. In addition, PKL veterans Maninder Singh and Pardeep Narwal, as well as Iranian powerhouses Fazel Atrachali and Mohammadreza Shadloui, will be participating in the PKL 12 auction.
Take note of the fact that star raider Naveen Kumar will be sold for the very first time. This is a noteworthy statistic to take into consideration. The victor of the PKL 8 will be eligible to participate in the auction after having amassed 1102 Raid Points for Dabang Delhi K.C. over the course of six seasons. Before participating in a PKL auction, he will be the first player in the league's history to have accumulated more than one thousand points with a single league side.
For the purpose of the auction, players from both the United States and other countries will be classified into one of four categories: A, B, C, or D. All-Rounders, Defenders, and Raiders are the additional categories that will be used to categorize players within each category. The following are the basic pricing for each category:
- Category A: INR 30 Lakh
- Category B: INR 20 Lakh
- Category C: INR 13 Lakh
- Category D: INR 9 Lakh
Each franchise will have a total salary purse of INR 5 Crore available for its squad.
Retained Players
- Bengal Warriors: Vishwas S, Yash Malik, Manjeet, Deep Kumar, Sushil Kambrekar
- Bengaluru Bulls: Chandranaik M, Lucky Kumar, Manjeet, Pankaj
- Dabang Delhi: Sandeep, Mohit
Gujarat Giants: Himanshu Singh, Himanshu, Parteek Dahiya, Rakesh
Haryana Steelers: Rahul Sethpal, Vinay, Shivam Anil Patare, Jaideep, Jaya Soorya NS, Vishal S. Tate, Sahil, Manikandan N, Vikas Ramadas Jadhav.
Jaipur Pink Panthers: Reza Mirbagheri, Abhishek KS, Ronak Singh, Nitin Kumar, Sombir, Ritik Sharma.
Patna Pirates: Hamid Mirzaei Nader, Thiyagarajan Yuvaraj, Sudhakar M, Ayan, Navdeep, Sahil Patil, Deepak.
Puneri Paltan: Abinesh Nadarajan, Gaurav Khatri, Pankaj Mohite, Aslam Imandar, Mohit Goyat, Dadaso Pujari, Aditya Shinde.
Tamil Thalaivas: Moein Shafaghi, Himanshu, Sagar, Nitesh Kumar, Narender, Ronak, Vishal Chahal, Aashish, Anuj Gawade, Dhiraj Bailmare.
Telugu Titans: Shankar Bhimraj Gadai, Ajit Pandurang Pawar, Ankit, Praful Zaware, Sagar, Chetan Sahu, Nitin, Rohit.
U Mumba: Sunil Kumar, Rohit, Amir Mohammad Zafardanesh, Satish Kannan, Mukilan Shanmugam, Ajit Chouhan, Deepak Kundu, Lokesh Ghosliya, Sunny.
UP Yoddhas: Sumit, Bhavani Rajput, Sahul Kumar, Surender Gill, Ashu Singh, Hitesh, Gagana Gowda, Shivam Chaudhary, Jayesh Mahajan, Gangaram, Sachin, Keshav Kumar.
