PKL 9: Manjeet Chillar's Telugu Titans will host Rakesh's Gujarat Giants

The raider from the team of the west has the second most raid points.

Manjeet Chillar will have to set the combinations to work well in the defensive unit after a poor performance in the Bengaluru leg winning just one match. The side looked like a title-winning squad on paper but the performance is totally different but still have two legs left to put up a tough fight. Telugu Titans will next play Gujarat Giants in PKL 9.

Gujarat Giants have played well in the seven matches played winning and losing three matches each. Rakesh Kumar is the star raider and is in the second spot in the raiders list one point behind Naveen Kumar. With the youngsters slowly catching up the pace the team looks set for a playoff spot.

Team News

Telugu Titans

Raiders: Abhishek Singh, Monu Goyat, Siddharth Sirish Desai, Rajnish, Ankit Beniwal, Vinay, Aman Kadian.

Defenders: Surjeet Singh, Parvesh Bhainswal, Vishal Bhardwaj, Adarsh T, Ravinder Pahal, Vijay Kumar, Nitin, Mohit, Mohit Pahal. Muhammed Shihas S.

All-Rounders: Mohsen Maghsoudlou Jafari, K Hanumanthu, Hamid Mirzaei Nader, Ravinder.

Gujarat Giants

Raiders: Chandran Ranjit, Mahendra Rajput, Dong Geon Lee, Purna Singh, Sonu, Pardeep Kumar, Rakesh, Gaurav Chhikara, Sohit, Sonu Singh, Sawin

All-Rounders: Arkam Shaikh, Parteek Dhaiya, Rohan Singh, Shankar Gadai

Defenders: Vinod Kumar, Young Chang Ko, Rinku Narwal, Baldev Singh, Sourav Gulia, Sandeep Kandola, Manuj, Kapil, Ujjval Singh

Head to Head

Gujarat Giants and Telugu Titans have faced each other six times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Gujarat Giants have won five whereas U Mumba has come out victorious on only one occasion.

Player to watch

Adarsh T is with the Telugu Titans for the past few seasons and has been a useful player coming in mostly as a substitute in PKL 9. Adarsh mostly an all-rounder has been unsuccessful in tackling but has shown promise in the raiding department. But his performance alone will not be enough for Telugu Titans to win with Siddharth, and Monu Goyat needing to chip in with valuable points.

Rakesh Kumar has been lethal in the attack against all the opposition scoring six super 10s. With the Telugu Titans' defence very weak, Rakesh needs to make use of the opportunity and score maximum points. Rakesh shall attack Vishal Bharadwaj from the start taking bonus points frequently.

Key to Success

The defence shall be the key to success for Telugu Titans which to date has not fired. All four experienced defenders Vishal Bharadwaj, Surjeeth Singh, Parvesh Bainswal, and Ravinder Pahal have scored more than 250 tackle points in PKL history but none of them has scored points on a constant basis. Someone needs to step up and take the initiative to stop Rakesh which will be a huge blow for Gujarat.

Rakesh Kumar and the captain Chandran Ranjith need to keep attacking and play with aggression to unstable the Telugu Titans' defence. The Telugu Titans are already low on confidence and Gujarat should make use of this opportunity and play positively.

Did you know

Surjeeth Singh is nine points away from reaching the 350 tackle points mark. Overall the star defender has scored 354 points in the Pro Kabaddi League.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar