PKL 2019 | Time for us to go back to drawing board, says Srinivas Reddy

Jaipur Pink Panthers were the best side of PKL 7 during the initial passage of the tournament. However, as the league progressed, they failed to perform well and some injuries also affected them a lot during the league. They are out of the race for the layoffs and the Srinivas Reddy-coached side ended their campaign with a close defeat against Tamil Thalaivas on Monday.

Reddy, at the post-match press conference, talked about the performance in the seventh season and also about the future of the franchise.

“Our start. We were brilliant in the first 11 matches. But then the injuries started to pile up and we missed key players in big matches and crucial moments. The few games we lost during the middle part of the season ended up putting too much pressure on us and that resulted in uncharacteristic errors and subdued performances. That was the primary reason we missed out on the playoffs,” Reddy told reporters.

“It is now time for us to go back to the drawing board. We will assess our shortcomings this season. Be it offence or defence, we will look at areas that need improvement and see if we can rectify it internally or look for something in the auction.”

Jaipur and Tamil Thalaivas played out a close game on Monday. Some mistakes from the Chennai-based franchise also allowed the Pink Panthers to make a comeback into the game. However, Reddy also said that the Jaipur players also gave away easy points and the raiders failed to perform which resulted in them losing the match against the Thalaivas.

“Our raiders could not score points at crucial junctures. One Super Tackle and then another tackle point when we had them pegged down to three cost us the match. We made errors and gave away easy points. Without those errors, we would have probably won the game. So, it is a bit disappointing,” the Jaipur coach concluded.