After buying Sachin and maintaining squad continuity, Tamil Thalaivas look to challenge for the title in PKL 11

After a below-par campaign last time around, Tamil Thalaivas will be raring to put their best foot forward once Season 11 of the Pro Kabaddi League gets underway on October 18. The Thalaivas failed to make it past the league stage last season having qualified for the semi-finals in Season 9.

It goes without saying that they will be keen to return to the PKL 11 Playoffs under the guidance of a dual-coach system. For Season 11, the Tamil Thalaivas have appointed Udaya Kumar as head coach and Dharmaraj Cheralathan - a former PKL winner as a player - as strategy coach to guide the team in a collaborative manner.

Having already retained their core squad from the previous campaign, Tamil Thalaivas weren’t the busiest at the Season 11 Player Auction table although they did make the most expensive purchase by signing raider Sachin for a whopping INR 2.15 crores. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Tamil Thalaivas before the action begins in Season 11.

Strengths

The Thalaivas’ biggest strength in Season 11 is likely to be the fact that they’ve managed to retain most of their key players from the previous campaign. Narender, who has picked up 429 raid points in two seasons with the Thalaivas, will once again play a crucial role in attack for the team.

In addition, the acquisition of Sachin, who has accumulated 952 raid points in his PKL career and is the league's all-time leading scorer of do-or-die raid points (233), makes it easy to see how formidable the Thalaivas’ raiding unit looks on paper. Furthermore, their backup raiders, such as Vishal Chahal, who scored 34 raid points in his PKL debut for the Thalaivas last season, along with the experienced Chandran Ranjit, who has notched up 534 raid points, further strengthen their attack.

Tamil Thalaivas have also ensured continuity in defence by retaining Sagar, M. Abishek, Sahil Gulia, Himanshu, Mohit, and Amirhossein Bastami. Sahil Gulia and Sagar finished among the top 10 tackle points scorers in PKL 10, with 69 and 66 tackle points respectively.

Weaknesses

That said, it will be interesting to see how the likes of M. Abishek, Himanshu, Mohit and Amirhossein Bastami cope, should there be an injury to or loss in form for their main defenders Sahil Gulia and Sagar.

Sagar’s absence from the team due to injury for a few matches last season affected the Thalaivas’ overall defensive performance and balance. As a result, the onus and scrutiny on the Thalaivas’ backup defenders will be greater this time around, making it imperative for them to step up and deliver should a similar situation arise.

Opportunities

Already recognised as one of the league’s premier raiders, Sachin is just 48 raid points away from completing 1000 in PKL. He will look to establish himself as one of the elite raiders in Season 11 after a couple of inconsistent showings over the last couple of campaigns compared to his lofty standards.

He will be hoping to breach the 200 raid points mark in a season for the first time in his career in the upcoming campaign and finds himself in the ideal environment to do so with young Narender alongside him to shoulder the raiding responsibilities - a luxury not always afforded to him in the past.

Threats

One area that Tamil Thalaivas would be wary about is their lack of an established all-rounder with PKL experience in the team. All-rounders are crucial due to the balance they bring to the team courtesy of their ability to chip in with points on both ends of the mat. Iranian Moein Safaghi is yet to play in the PKL and putting all the pressure on him as Tamil Thalaivas’ sole all-rounder could prove to be difficult for a player yet to make his debut.

If one of the Thalaivas’ starting players is unavailable due to injuries or knocks, a quality all-rounder would have been the perfect replacement. However, Tamil Thalaivas will have to look for different solutions if such a situation arises considering the fact that Season 11 will be Moein Safaghi’s debut campaign.

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