Pune, Aug 13 (IANS): Telugu Yoddhas - the GMR group owned franchisee, will begin their campaign in the inaugural season of Ultimate Kho Kho against Chennai based Chennai Quick Guns, here on Sunday.

Telugu Yoddhas will be playing the second match of the opening day of the inaugural season. The game will also be a southern derby, as two teams represent two prominent regions of Southern India.

Led by software engineer and Indian Player Prajwal KH, Telugu Yoddhas are expected to start their season with some prominent Indian Kho Kho players which includes the team's vice-captain, Pratik Waikar and Bojjam Ranjith who were members of the Indian Team that won Gold in SAFF Games 2016. The team also includes Indian players P. Hemachandran, Arun S.A and Aditya Das.

The Telugu Yoddhas squad comprises a perfect balance of youth and experience. Khelo India Youth Games medal winners Arun Ashok Gunki, Adarsh Dattaray Mohite, Avdut Bharat Patil, Rohan Tanaji Shingade & Dhanush K.C provide the energy as the younger lot in the team.

The Team also consists of Deepak V Madhav and Prasad Radye from Railways who are the current National Champions. This mix of players will be hopeful to perform well for the Yodhas in the first season of Ultimate Kho Kho league.

On the other hand, the likes of Mahesh Shinde, Rajvardhan Patil, M Vignesh, Ramji Kashyap in the Chennai Quick Guns squad will be the players to be looked out for.

"We were eagerly waiting for this day and we are happy that the day is finally here. We have a good team composition who can turn the tides of a match to our favour anyday. Our pre-season training has been good and now all we are waiting for is to hit the ground," said Sumit Bhatia, Head Coach, Telugu Yoddhas, ahead of their first game.

"The opening encounter against Chennai Quick Guns will set the course for the rest of the tournament for us and we as a team are confident of performing well in our opening game," he added.