Patna Pirates experience unwanted reversal of fortunes under Ravi Shetty

Rohit Gulia the secondary raider played his role to perfection scoring 149 points in 19 matches.

Patna Pirates finished PKL season 9 in tenth place with 54 points. The finalists of season 8 played well in phases by losing the first four out of the six matches in the Bengaluru leg then going on to win five consecutive matches in the Pune Leg. Much was expected from the team but the team did not have good depth in the raiding department with Sachin and Rohit performing single-handedly in all the matches.

Top Performers

Sachin Tanwar

Sachin was the top raider of the side scoring 179 points in 20 matches with eight super 10. The raider did not get much support from his counterparts apart from Rohit Gulia else could have gone on to breach the 200 points barrier. In one of the matches when the raider was out due to an injury, the team could score only five raid points which showed how important he was to the team’s raiding department.

Rohit Gulia

Rohit Gulia the secondary raider played his role to perfection scoring 149 points in 19 matches. The raider scored points easily when the opposition had six or seven defenders on the mat and on the contrary, scored fewer points when the bonus wasn't on. If Rohit Gulia could have concentrated more on his weakness then he could have scored more raid points and helped the team further.

Mohammadreza Chiyaneh

The star Iranian for the second consecutive season scored 80 plus points and has been the defender to watch out for at the start of the season. The left-corner defender overall scored 89 points in 20 matches ending the season in the top 5 in the tackle points list. He became the only defender to score 16 tackle points in a single match with all the points coming through super tackles. Towards the end, he also started to raid in a few matches and might also become a defensive all-rounder in season 10.

Underperformer of the season

Neeraj Kumar

The captain of Patna Pirates failed to lead the team in scoring, he scored only 30 points in 21 matches. Neeraj Kumar was one of the retained players from season 8 along with Chiyaneh, Sachin, and Sajin but failed to live up to the expectations. The cover defender scored only one high 5 and this season will be one of his worst overall in the Pro Kabaddi League.

Manager’s report card

Ravi Shetty who was the assistant coach for Puneri Paltan last season replaced Ram Mehar Singh as the head coach. Patna Pirates was the finalist in the last season but performed quite opposite compared to the previous seasons. The coach did not have many resources left on the bench and had to try out the same combination with the auction strategy not working well.

Lessons to be learned

Apart from Sachin and Rohit Gulia, there wasn't a single raider who could stand up and score raid points. Anuj was the tertiary raider along with Monu but both their performances were not satisfactory which hurt the team's chances towards the fag end. The franchise needs to have good depth in all the positions so that whenever a player gets injured they can be replaced without much damage. The injury to Sachin in the middle could see a dent in the raiding department.