Mumbai: Telugu Titans and U Mumba will take on each other in the season opener of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 7, which will start on July 20.
Star raider Siddharth Desai and Iranian Coach Gholamreza Mazandarani will meet their previous club, U Mumba in the season opener at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad.
The second game on the opening day will be a battle of the champions -- defending champions Bengaluru Bulls take on three-time winners Patna Pirates and both will look to get one up on the other and take a step in the direction to winning the trophy again this season.
The other highly anticipated matches through the week include the big southern derby between Telugu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas. This has been a high-octane derby for the past two seasons, but this time, Rahul Chaudhari will play for Tamil Thalaivas and will pair up with his close friend and captain Ajay Thakur.
The season returns to the original PKL calendar of July to October, with the league beginning on July 20 and finals on October 19.
The caravan continues with a focus on an equitable league table in a double round robin format where each team will play every other team twice, and the top six will go to the playoffs.
Each city leg begins on Saturdays while rest days for the team are on Tuesdays.
All home teams get four days rest before and after their home legs giving them adequate rest before their home leg.
The city-wise schedule:
- Hyderabad (July 20 to July 26)
- Mumbai (July 27 to August 2
- Patna (August 3 to August 9)
- Ahmedabad (August 10 to August 16)
- Chennai (August 17 to August 23)
- Delhi (August 24 to August 30)
- Bengaluru (August 31 to September 6)
- Kolkata (September 7 to September 13)
- Pune (September 14 to September 20)
- Jaipur (September 21 to September 27)
- Panchkula (September 28 to October 4)
- Greater Noida (October 5 to October 11)
- Eliminator 1: League rank 3 vs League rank 4 (October 14)
- Eliminator 2: League rank 4 vs League rank 5 (October 14)
- Semifinal 1: League rank 1 vs Winner eliminator 1 (October 16)
- Semifinal 2: League rank 2 vs Winner eliminator 2 (October 16)
- Final: Winner semifinal 1 vs Winner semifinal 2 - October 19
