PKL 2019 | I don’t feel we lacked third raider, says Rohit Kumar

After winning the first game against Patna Pirates, the defending champions were thrashed in their second outing against Gujarat Fortunegiants on Sunday. The Ahmedabad-based team defeated Rohit Kumar and co. by a huge margin of 42-24 as the star-studded Bengaluru raiding unit failed to deliver. Rohit and Pawan managed to bag eight and four raid points respectively while Sumit Singh got five bonus points while raiding. 

The team had experienced Kashiling Adake in raiding last year as the third raider for good support for both Rohit and Pawan. However, this year they have young Sumit in the team. When asked at the press conference about the lack of a third raider in the side, Rohit replied, “No, I don’t feel that way. Last season we had Kashiling Adake, this season we have Sumit. However, sometimes what happens in matches is that the opposition team gets set and plays well. And at that point of time, it is difficult to get raid points, regardless of whether it’s me, Kashiling or anyone else.”

The Bulls were completely annihilated by a strong Gujarat defence which had experienced cover defenders Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal while the two corners were guarded by young Ankit and Sumit Malik. Rohit revealed that they had to adjust their game as the Gujarat defence was very aggressive on Sunday.

“We kept trying to play well from the start but their defence was very aggressive, which resulted in us trying to adjust our game. I feel that’s the main reason behind our loss today. Perhaps we could have raided with more intent but that didn’t happen today,” the Bengaluru skipper concluded.