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Haryana Steelers looked like one of the promising sides before the start of the season as they had experienced players in their squad. Joginder Narwal who made a number of incredible captaincy decisions in Season 8 was expected to continue in the same manner but he couldn’t replicate his leadership magic in the 9th edition. One of the reputed and aggressive coaches in vivo Pro Kabaddi, Manpreet Singh was roped in to guide the Dhaakad boys and add more firepower to the players but it just wasn't enough. Similar to Season 8, the team fought hard but fell short of advancing to the next round.
The Joginder Narwal-led side had a shaky start to the season with three wins and four losses in the first leg. The Steelers failed to get back on track when the caravan moved to Pune and the team managed to win only two matches in the second leg. The captaincy didn’t work and some of the experienced players couldn’t manage to live up to the expectations. Nitin Rawal took over captaincy midseason and a few changes were made in the lineup. The permutation and combination worked for Haryana in the final leg as they claimed five wins out of the eight matches that they played in Hyderabad but they missed out on qualifying for the playoffs.
The duo of Manjeet and Meetu Sharma formed a destructive pair for the Steelers in attack. The two star raiders did the bulk of the scoring and amassed 149 and 135 raid points respectively. The former also added good value in the defence by scoring 14 tackle points. The Steelers also had the likes of Rakesh Narwal (48 raid points), K. Prapanjan (40 raid points) and Vinay (33 raid points) in the raiding department but the rotation of raiders didn’t really work for the team as they look off colour. Sushil who was playing his first season looked like a good prospect in the five matches that he played and scored 17 raid points.
In defence, the cover duo of Jaideep Dahiya and Mohit Nandal did all the hard yards and produced 54 and 44 tackle points for the Steelers. This pair was the best cover duo in vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 9. The all-rounder Nitin Rawal made a handy contribution with 35 tackle points. He also added nine points in attack for the Dhaakad side. Iranian defender Amirhossein Bastami made his presence felt with 23 tackle points in his debut season. The captain of the ship Joginder Narwal had a forgettable season as he managed to score six tackle points in the eight matches he played.
It was a repeat of Season 8 for the Steelers where they were so close yet so far of making it to the playoffs in the 9th edition of the tournament. Though they accelerated in the last few league stage matches, they lacked consistency throughout the season and in the end it was too little too late. Haryana Steelers finished their Season 9 campaign at the 7th spot in the standings.
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