PKL Auctions | What clicked and what didn’t - Gujarat Fortunegiants

04/21/2019

Gujarat Fortunegiants qualified for the finals in their first two seasons of the PKL but failed to win the title on both occasions. The Manpreet Singh-coached side have a few of their key players from last season for the seventh edition with a hope to be third-time lucky this year.

Last season's performance:

After ending their amazing league stage of the tournament in the sixth season, the Ahmedabad-based team put up a great show in the playoffs as well to book a place in the final for the second time in a row after a similar outing in their debut season where they were defeated by Patna Pirates. Gujarat had as many as 17 wins in the last edition from 22 games and topped Zone A with 93 points. However, they were defeated by Bengaluru Bulls in a thrilling finale by 38-33 points, the team had some of the top performers of the season with them.

Their defence was one of the best in the entire league with players like skipper Sunil Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Ruturaj Koravi and Sachin Vittala. Sunil and Bhainswal formed a perfect cover combination while the two corners of the Gujarat mat were well guarded by Koravi and Vittala. The team had Sachin Tanwar as the main raider with K Prapanjan, Mahendra Ganesh Rajpoot, Ajay Chahal and Rohit Gulia acting as backups in that department.

Positive takeaways from the auction:

After two successful seasons in the league, the Fortunegiants came into the auctions earlier this month after retaining Sachin and Sunil Kumar in Elite Player Retention. They also have kept their last year’s best young player Rohit Gulia under the New Young Player (NYP) category along with Lalit Chaudhary. Their retention showed Manpreet’s intention of keeping the core of the team intact before the auction itself. On the auction table, it was further clarified with the way Gujarat almost maintained the same defensive unit from last year which eventually makes them title favourites for the upcoming edition.

They went after left cover defender Bhainswal and roped him in for a whopping Rs. 75 lakh while they will have the services of the right corner Koravi for Rs. 30.5 lakh. The only player that they don’t have from last season is Vittala otherwise the defence looks almost the same. Not only that, the inclusion of all-rounder Vinod Kumar for Rs. 26 lakh will be a huge boost for the team as they already have Sachin and Gulia in the side. In the raiding department, they also have bought GB More and Abolfazl Maghsoudlou for this season which makes it a little better from last year’s unit. More went to the Gujarat side for Rs. 21.50 lakh while the Iranian raider was bought for Rs. 15.75 lakh.

Threats for next season:

With three of their four defensive positions sorted, Gujarat are in a better place and their defence looks one of the best in the league. However, they will still miss a proper left corner as Sachin Vittala, who was their go-to man for that place, is no more with the side for the upcoming season of the league. The team, most likely, will try and start with Sonu Gahlawat at the crucial position but that would be very risky considering the importance of the defensive position in competitive kabaddi. Gahlawat is yet to make his debut in the league and it will be a huge test for him and the Gujarat defence to start off the tournament without the service of a good left corner defender in the side. As far as raiding is concerned, they are loaded in that department as well, but the onus will, well and truly, be on Sachin to lead them to the promised land.

Gujarat Fortunegiants Squad:

Sachin Tanwar, Sunil Kumar, Lalit Chaudhary, Rohit Gulia, Parvesh Bhainswal, Rituraj Koravi, Vinod Kumar, GB More, Amit Kharb, Abolfazl Maghsoudloumahali, Mohammad Shazid Hossain, Pankaj, Gurvinder Singh, Sonu, Abhishek, Sonu Gahlawat