Six months on from PKL 12, the season's best starting 7 still tells the story
Pro Kabaddi Season 13 has no confirmed start date yet. The mat is dark, the franchises are working quietly on coaching changes and contract talks, and the only version of the sport anyone is reliving right now is PKL 12. Good timing to revisit it properly. When Khel Now published its Best Starting 7 on 1 November 2025, a day after Dabang Delhi beat Puneri Paltan 31-28 in the final at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in Delhi, the seven names on that list looked like the cleanest honest read of the season. Six months on, they still do.
The raiders: a champion, a record-breaker and a revelation
Ayan Lohchab of Patna Pirates was the runaway performer of PKL 12. He finished with 316 raid points from 22 matches, picked up 16 Super 10s, and claimed the Best Raider of the Season award and the ₹15 lakh prize that came with it. Along the way he became only the fifth player in PKL history to get to 300 raid points in a season, and he matched Pardeep Narwal and Pawan Sehrawat for the joint-fastest trip to that milestone. Khel Now put him at right-in, and there was no argument about it.
At centre was Devank Dalal, the Bengal Warriorz raider who was a one-man attack for long stretches of the season. He set the fastest-to-50-raid-points mark in PKL history in three matches, beat his own early-season ceiling with a 25-point return against Gujarat Giants and carried a franchise that leaned on him for roughly two-thirds of their raiding output. Bharat Hooda of Telugu Titans rounded out the raid unit at left-in, carried there by a playoff run that peaked with 23 points in Eliminator 3 against Patna Pirates and a 22-point Super 10 in Qualifier 2 against Puneri Paltan.
The defence: Patna's iron, Dabang's Sultan, and a title in the corners
Navdeep, also of Patna Pirates, won Best Defender of the Season. He topped the tackle charts with 73 tackle points from 65 successful tackles, played the right-corner spot, and took home ₹15 lakh of his own. Alongside him at left-corner in Khel Now's seven is Fazel Atrachali, the Dabang Delhi defender and the MVP of the final. Atrachali walked off with the tournament MVP award, a ₹20 lakh cheque, and the recognition that he is now the most successful overseas player in Pro Kabaddi history. His tackle on Aditya Shinde to open his scoring in the final was a small, late, very Fazel moment.
The cover positions went to Sunil Kumar of U Mumba at right-cover and Jaideep Dahiya of Haryana Steelers at left-cover. Sunil also won the Tackle of the Season award, an acknowledgement that the defensive pick-of-the-year moment belonged to him rather than to anyone from the two finalists.
Why this XII still matters
Look at the franchise spread and the story sharpens. Patna Pirates put two players in a best-seven they never got to the final of. Dabang Delhi, who won the thing, got one. Puneri Paltan, runners-up, got none. That is not a knock on Puneri, whose raid unit built the season's second-best regular run. It is a reminder that the 2025 season was spread wider than any previous one. Joginder Narwal, the Dabang Delhi head coach who also captained the franchise to the Season 8 title, became only the second person to win a PKL championship as both player and coach. Ashu Malik, not on the Khel Now seven but the Dabang captain in the final, lifted his first trophy as a skipper.
With PKL 13 still without a confirmed start date and the league's 2026 retention and auction calendar yet to be formally announced, the seven players above are where the story sits for now. The next retention window, whenever it comes, will reshuffle plenty of this. Ayan Lohchab entered the May 2025 auction as the new face of Patna's raid unit. Devank Dalal carried Bengal. Fazel Atrachali turned 34 in March. Navdeep's defensive rate will be tested. How franchises choose to build around them, or move past them, is the Pro Kabaddi story to follow through the rest of 2026.
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