Defending champions, a big coaching hire and an auction in waiting: PKL 13 takes shape

There is no Pro Kabaddi being played right now, but the next season is already being built. With the league between editions, the franchises have spent the off-season quietly reshaping themselves through coaching hires and young-player recruitment, and the one date everyone is waiting on, the Season 13 auction, is expected to land in the next couple of months. Here is where the picture stands.

Dabang Delhi set the bar

Everyone is chasing Dabang Delhi K.C. again. They closed out Season 12 in October 2025 with a 31-28 win over Puneri Paltan in the final at Delhi’s Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium, a tight finish that gave them their second title after Season 8 and made them the first home side to lift the trophy since U Mumba back in Season 2. Defending a crown is a different job from winning one, and Delhi will have to do it against a field that has spent the gap months trying to close the distance.

A coaching reshuffle led by Gujarat’s big hire

The most eye-catching move off the mat has come from Gujarat Giants, who brought in Randhir Singh Sehrawat as head coach back in March. Sehrawat is about as decorated as kabaddi coaching gets. He spent the league’s first eleven seasons with the Bengaluru Bulls and steered them to the title in Season 6, and the nickname that follows him around, the “Chanakya of Kabaddi”, tells you what franchises think they are buying. There is a neat twist to it. Gujarat have reached two finals, in Seasons 5 and 6, and lost both, and the Season 6 defeat came against the very Bengaluru Bulls side Sehrawat was coaching to the title. The man who denied them their best chance is now the one charged with delivering a first.

The squads are being rebuilt from the ground up

The bigger names will arrive at the auction, but several sides have already started at the base of the roster. Telugu Titans have signed four New Young Players, the raiders Aryan Dhawale and Laren Kumar alongside corner defenders Himanshu Lather and Prince Kumar, a clear move to deepen a squad that has struggled for consistency. Tamil Thalaivas, still rebuilding after a flat Season 12, have added raider Suthil Darshan and Lakshay Suhag on young-player deals tied to the next two seasons. None of these are headline signings on their own, but they are the kind of groundwork that decides how much auction money a team has left for the marquee names.

The auction is the next big marker

That auction is what the off-season is really building toward, and it is expected to be held sometime around July or August, though the league has not locked in a confirmed date yet. If the recent trend holds, it will be a loud one. The Season 12 auction ran to a total spend of 37.90 crore across two days, with 121 players picked up and a record crop of crorepatis, and each cycle has tended to push the numbers higher than the last. A confirmed schedule for the season itself is still awaited too, so for now the calendar is guesswork built on reports rather than anything official.

What is clear is that the work that shapes Season 13 is happening now, in the hires and the young-player deals that rarely make the back pages. By the time the auction gavel falls, much of the groundwork will already be set.

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