PKL 9: Gujarat Giants can play spoilsport for Patna Pirates

Chandran Ranjith will be playing his 100th match of the Pro Kabaddi League.

Patna Pirates lost a close encounter in PKL 9 against UP Yodhhas by two points (33-35) and will be back after a short break of four days. The break was a much-needed one as the team could only win one out of the last five matches. Sachin Tawar needs to get back to his original form after missing against UP Yoddhas.

Gujarat Giants decimated Puneri Paltan in the last encounter winning by a 12-point margin (51-39) against the tournament favourites. Puneri Paltan in the entire season has not lost by a huge margin showing how determined Gujarat Giants were in winning against Pune. Gujarat needs to continue in the same fashion in order for them to qualify mathematically.

Team News

Patna Pirates

Raiders: Sachin, Monu, Anand Tomar, Sushil Gulia, Vishwas S, Rohit, Ranjit Naik, Anuj Kumar

Defenders: Neeraj Kumar, Sunil, Thiyagarajan Yuvaraj, Manish, Shivam Chaudhary, Naveen Sharma

All-Rounders: Rohit Gulia, Sajin C, Sager Kumar, Abdul Insamam, Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, Daniel Odhiambo

Gujarat Giants

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

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

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

Head to Head

Patna Pirates and Gujarat Giants have faced each other ten times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Gujarat has won five encounters and Patna Pirates has come out victorious on other five occasions.

Player to watch

Rohit Gulia scored 11 points in the last encounter and performed well in the absence of lead raider Sachin Tawar who is returning back from injury. Gulia needs to support Sachin Tawar in raiding and score points in defence as well (if required during the super tackle situations). Since Patna Pirates do not have depth in raiding Rohit Gulia shall be the player to watch out for. 

Arkam Shaikh, the cover defender from Gujarat Giants has one of the best dashes in the league but hasn't made proper use of it getting involved in unsuccessful tackles. He needs to negate the threat of Sachin who is good at running hand touches.

Key to Success

Sunil the right-corner defender had a great start to the season and was constantly featured in the top 10 tackle list. The defender has lost form in the last few matches and needs to cover up for it in the upcoming match. The combo of Shadlu and Sunil shall be the key to success against a strong raiding unit.

If the defence of Gujarat Giants is sorted then the team will be one of the top teams this season but unfortunately, coach Ram Mehar Singh couldn't fine-tune the problem. Sourav Gulia the cover defender to has looked out of form after his return from injury. If the defence can somehow hold on to Sachin then Gujarat can hold a slight advantage.

Did you know

Chandran Ranjith from Gujarat Giants will be playing his 100th match in the Pro Kabaddi League against Patna Pirates. 

Broadcast

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar