MUMBAI: After a solid start to the season, reigning defending champions Mumbai Maharathis in the inaugural match, the Haryana Hammers are upbeat for their next encounter against UP Dangal in the second season of Patanjali Powervita Pro Wrestling League (PWL) on Wednesday.

It won’t be an easy affair for them, as the star-studded UP team includes Commonwealth gold medallist Geeta Phogat, Babita Kumari, Maria Mamashuk and marquee player Elitsa Yankova along with Amit Dahiya.

The star encounters of the night will be the fights between Geeta and Marwa Amri, along with Sandeep Tomar and Amit Dahiya. On the other hand, Babita will be eager to repeat her performance same as in season-1, where she outshone World No 3 Ukraine grappler Tatyana Kit, who was representing Haryana then.

After the release of Bollywood film – Dangal, all eyes are set on Geeta and Babita and they are expected to prove that they still have the same energy and aggression, which was portrayed in the film.

Marwa Amri is in good form after beating Sarita in the first bout, and it will be a close battle when she will take on Geeta on the mat. The way Geeta had brought down World champion Oksana Herhel of Ukraine in the previous season, nothing is impossible for the Dhaakad girl.

Haryana squad will also have Kiran (75kg), Indu Choudhary (48kg) and Sumit (74kg) take the mat but it all depends on the result between Andrey Kviatkovski and Rajneesh in men’s 65kg weight category.

“Elitsa is world renowned player and has acclaimed various accolades, whereas we have a huge respect and feel proud for what Geeta has done till now. But having them both makes our team more balanced now,” said Sunny Katyal, UP Dangal team.

Rio Olympics medallist Elitsa Yankova (48kg) and World championship silver medallist Abdusalam Gadisov are marquee players for UP and Haryana respectively.