PKL 2019 | We are working on mistakes committed so far this season, states Srinivas Reddy
Jaipur coach Srinivas Reddy has asserted that his team is working towards rectifying the mistakes that they have committed so far in the seventh edition of the PKL. The Jaipur coach also explained about the dip in Deepak Niwas Hooda’s performance and their defender’s show off late in the league.
After starting the tournament on a great note, inaugural champions Jaipur Pink Panthers have now slipped out of the top six on the points table. With 43 points from 16 games, the Pink Panthers are now at the seventh spot. They are behind UP Yoddha by five points but the most important thing for them is that they are going to kick-start their home leg at the Sawai man Singh Stadium from tomorrow. Their first home game will be against Gujarat Fortunegiants and the Srinivas Reddy-coached side will be hoping for a good run in front of their home crowd.
In an exclusive chat with SportsCafe, Reddy has expressed his full faith on the star players in the team like Deepak Niwas Hooda, Sandeep Dhull and Amit Hooda of performing well in the remaining games in the league with a hope of making it to the playoffs from this stage.
“These are players who made us win the matches at the start of the tournament and they are going to do it in the future as well. Sometimes there is a dip in a player’s performance and so we are going through a bad patch. We are working on the mistakes we had made till now and focusing on our first target which is playoff and are making strategies accordingly,” Reddy told SportsCafe.
Deepak Niwas is playing his first full season as a skipper and though he started perfectly, his performance has shown a dip in last few matches. The Jaipur skipper has a total of 110 raid points from 16 games and Reddy is of the belief that captaincy has nothing to do with his performance and it was the all-rounder’s illness that affected him in few of the games.
“I won’t say it is the pressure of the captaincy, naturally he had a viral fever and because of that he had less strength but in spite of that, he played matches. So, it’s not captaincy pressure but some health issues because of which, there was a dip in his performance,” the Jaipur coach explained.
© PKLNot only their skipper Deepak Niwas, Jaipur have two very good corner defenders in the form of Amit Hooda at the right corner and Sandeep Dhull at the left side of the mat. The combination of the corners had also started well this season but Amit is having a dull phase at the moment. On the other hand, Dhull is still leading the chart of top defenders with 57 points from 16 matches so far. The Telangana man shared his tips to the corners and what they should do to stop the opposition raiders during the game.
“They shouldn’t go for advance tackles and they should only tackle when the raider is well inside and so they have to play according to the team’s situation. As now the raiders are also analysing and they know about which corner or deep player to attack and when that player will go for a tackle. They are coming in with a plan so our defenders should wait and go for a tackle when there is a wrong move,” Reddy stated.
When asked about cover defender Sunil Siddhgavali, the coach replied, “He is playing his supporting role very well but sometimes what happens is, he is in two minds about a tackle. If Sandeep is going for a tackle, which is not a successful one, he goes for the quick support and hence gets out.”
Jaipur have players like Deepak Narwal, Nilesh Salunke and Ajinkya Pawar to support their skipper in the raiding department. We have also seen the inclusion of Sushil Gulia in the team in the few of the games for raiding but none of them has been that very good which has been another major reason of their failure whenever Deepak Niwas has not done well on the mat. Reddy also admitted to the fact that the raiders have not been that consistent in the Jaipur camp. However, he said that all his players have the calibre to win matches for the Jaipur-based side.
“Our raiding department has lacked consistency and so they didn’t get into the rhythm but we are prepared for the upcoming matches so we will try our best to get our raiding department in rhythm and at least prepare them for a supporting or a full role when they get onto the mat.”
“All our 18 players have match-winning capabilities. Whenever the team need, we will use a specific player. They are a part of Jaipur Pink Panthers because they are capable so we will definitely use their services ahead and they will support us,” the coach signed off.
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