Greater Noida, Dec 5 (IANS): Gearing up for the eighth season of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), the GMR sports-owned UP Yoddha on Sunday left for Bengaluru to enter a bio bubble there, ahead of the start of the tournament on December 22.

The team that includes the players, support staff & management paid their visit to the Delhi Aerocity GMR Hanuman temple at the International Airport, New Delhi before boarding their flight for Bengaluru.

The team would enter the mandatory seven-day quarantine on reaching Bengaluru. As per COVID-19 protocols, a mandatory RT-PCR test will be conducted on each member every 72 hours during the league.

UP Yoddha, led by Nitesh Kumar, who also is a product of their state-of-the-art UP Yoddha BK Kabaddi Academy, are all set to kick off their 4th season in red and blue. Kumar earlier has led the team to finish third in the 7th PKL.

The team have James Kamweti, Pardeep Narwal, Shrikant Jadav, Surender Gill, Gulveer Singh, Ankit, Sahil Om Prakash & Mohammed Taghi in their attacking lines while the likes of Ashu Singh, Aashish Nagar, Nitesh Kumar, Gaurav Kumar & Sumit along with all-rounders Gurdeep & Nitin Panwar will be defending the fort.

The team will be guided by Jasveer Singh as the head coach and Arjun Singh as the assistant coach.

UP Yoddha are scheduled to take on defending champions Bengal Warriors in their opening match of the eighth Pro Kabaddi League on December 22.