PKL 2019 | Anup Kumar is like an elder brother in Puneri Paltan, says Surjeet Singh

After retiring from competitive kabaddi in the sixth season of the PKL, Anup Kumar joined Puneri Paltan as their coach right before the auctions earlier this year in April. Although the team has lost the first game of the ongoing tournament, they must be expecting a good result coming their way with the legendary player joining the side. Despite having bought back Girish Ernak and Nitin Tomar in the team, they gave the captaincy to Surjeet Singh who had led Bengal Warriors into the playoffs in season 6.

“I have been given a big responsibility and as every team hopes to play well, we also want to play well till the end and pick up the trophy. Girish and me are in the defence unit of the team and we want to take the team forward together as a unit.”

The Pune-based side missed the services of Tomar, their star raider, in their campaign opener against Haryana Steelers in season 7. They also have players like Manjeet, Darshan Kadian and Pawan Kadian in their team this season. All three players had done a decent job as the second and third choice raiders for their respective teams in the previous season. The Pune skipper is hopeful that their star raider, who suffered a muscle pull before the match against Haryana, would make a comeback on the mat soon. 

“Nitin will come back soon on the mat, the rest of the players Darshan, Manjeet and Pawan all are young players and it was a tough last match. We are going to rectify our mistakes; we have been practising so that we could improve. We have been telling our raiders about the mistakes they are making and hopefully we will play well in the next match and win,” the skipper explained.

“In the starting, there was a camp for fitness for about 20-25 days and then after that was a second camp in which we had both fitness and game practice. In the morning we did exercise for fitness and after that, we had game practice. We used to play around 2-3 matches among us generally and at other times we played to a specific situation,” the cover defender added.

The second game after the loss against Haryana will be the much-anticipated Maharashtra Derby. The Anup Kumar-led team will play against his first team in PKL. Anup had led U Mumba to the title in the second edition of the league after losing the final in the first season against Jaipur Pink Panthers. U Mumba and Puneri Paltan will be the first home game for Fazel Atrachali and Co. on their home mat as well. Surjeet is also expecting the Paltan to do well against the team from the Commercial Capital of the country and register their first win of the tournament as well. Mumba, after winning against Telugu Titans in the first game, had lost to Jaipur Pink Panthers.  

“There are 12 teams in the league, the ones who are going to play well is going to win. We play keeping in mind their weaknesses and shortcomings. They are coming into this match after a loss so they are under pressure as are we. So it's good for us as we have trained well and hope to win,” Surjeet signed off.