PKL 2018 | Randhir Singh confident of Bengaluru Bulls giving tough fight in PKL-6 final
PKL
After becoming the first team to qualify for the PKL final, Bengaluru coach Randhir Singh is hopeful of his team giving a tough fight to Gujarat Fortunegiants in the final. The Bulls had earlier defeated the runners-up from 2017 in the first qualifier to book the spot for the summit clash.
The Bengaluru Bulls unit is high on confidence after making it to the final of Pro Kabaddi League season 6 as the first team and they are all set to put up a great show in the last game of the season on January 5. They topped the Zone B points table and got a direct ticket for the final game by beating Gujarat
The Bulls had earlier qualified for the final of the popular league back in the second edition but were defeated by U Mumba in the final encounter. The Bulls coach Randhir Singh expressed his delight of making it to the grand finale and wished the team to do well in the last battle of the season.
“This is not the first time we have qualified and off-course it feels great to see all your efforts finally paying off. That’s confidential. We’ve devised a strategy against both the teams (said before the second qualifier) and are hoping to give either of them a tough fight in the final,” Singh told SportsCafe.
For the team from the Garden City, Pawan Sehrawat has been their best performer in the league so far with 260 total points. The 22-year-old was there in the Bulls camp in the third season as well but he has never been a great performer in PKL. But, he announced himself at the big stage of PKL this season in their very first game against the Tamil Thalaivas by scoring a Super 10. In the game in which skipper Rohit went for only a couple of raids, Pawan was the best performer on the mat with a total of 20 points against the Thalaivas despite going off injured with a majority of the second half remaining.
Speaking about Pawan, the coach explained, “Pawan was not a star performer in the previous seasons but he’s always been a great student he always had the zeal to learn and that’s what has contributed to his success he has learnt from his mistakes and tried to overcome them and excel.”
“It was a crucial move because we knew Pawan had the potential and if given a chance he would perform well. So we would always tell him to go all out and raid not worrying about getting out we knew that if Pawan wouldn’t be able to perform, we always had Rohit but if Pawan performs Rohit would get support in the raiding department and hence he could then concentrate on his role as a captain.”
The Bengaluru Bulls have players like Kashiling Adakde along with skipper Rohit Kumar and Pawan Sehrawat to score raid points but the defence has always been a concern for them from the very beginning of the season. They have tried out players like Amit Sheoran, Raju Lal Choudhary, Ashish Sangwan and others to get tackle points but things haven’t really worked out that well for them. There is no experienced or big name in the camp as far as the team’s defence is concerned.
© PKL“I agree that our defence is weaker than our offence, but we do have quality raiders; Amit Sheoran especially, has outperformed this season. But we’re always working on making our defence department stronger,” said the coach who has served the franchise from the first edition in 2014.
The Bulls have some of the best kabaddi minds in their think tank which have been of great help for them. Rohit has done a commendable job in leading the team from the front and according to the coach, he is a calm-headed player which helps the team to do well. Randhir said that he is a team player and has got all the qualities of being a good leader. The Bulls have also got another coach BC Ramesh and both Randhir and Ramesh are the head coaches in the team which Randhir thinks has been of great help for the team this season.
“Rohit is a great captain and like they rightly call him ‘captain cool’ he is always very calm on the mat and tries to
Explaining about coaching the team, “The role of a coach is extremely important in any sport and it must not be undermined. My journey with Bengaluru Bulls has been a great one, we have seen our share of ups and downs, but for
“He (BC Ramesh) has a different skill set and I have a different skill set. Our approach in terms of coaching is also different but I think when we sit together and discuss team strategies we brainstorm and together we’re able to take each other’s positives and bring in a different perspective, which I think has benefited the boys.”
