Kabaddi world can take away lot of learnings from us, says Ashan Kumar

The Tamil Thalaivas coach believes his team lacked the experience in the final five minutes of the game.

Tamil Thalaivas have been the success story of PKL season 9. Despite their captain Pawan Sehrawat missing the entirety of the season through injuries, the Thalaivas under coach Ashan Kumar has stood tall and the fearless crop of youngsters has taken the league by storm. Their dream run was halted by Puneri Paltan in the semi-final. Puneri rode on Pankaj Mohite and Nabibakhsh to mount a comeback in the final minutes and steal the game 39-37. Following their heartbreaking exit, this is what coach Ashan Kumar had to say.

Where did this match slip

The Thalaivas held on to the lead till the 35th minute but a late all-out resulted in the momentum swinging Pune’s way. Coach Ashan said, “The match was exhilarating. In the last moment, we lost the lead due to the defence. Our right cover was a bit error-prone.

Our defence of four was able to contain the Puneri raiders till the end but our five-formation leaked errors. The all-out came against us at the wrong time.”

Performance of young players and lack of experience

Despite being young and inexperienced, the Thalaivas did not let it deter their ambitions and won the praise of coach Ashan Kumar, “I am delighted with the young players but disappointed that we could not catch the raiders at the right time and that affected the strategy. Regardless, I am proud of their performance. We are a young team playing their first leagues and the lack of experience contributed to us not being able to control the lead. I told the team just before the final time-out that the victory is nearby, just be alert and maintain the lead.  We had no fear of anyone.”

Positives from the season

From being bottom of the table to being minutes away from their first-ever final, the Thalaivas success story is a highly inspirational tale, as pointed out by Ashan Kumar, ”The whole season has been positive. Nobody gave us the hope of winning two matches in a row, let alone qualifying for the playoffs. When they went on a run of wins, that is when we realized that we have a good and balanced team in actuality and this gave us belief. We reached here because of our strength, unity, dedication, and self-belief. We will try again next time. Pune had a good team and we had the lead till the last 5 minutes. All three games against Pune have been last-raid deciders. Our new talents are very competitive and will progress well.”

Message to the Kabaddi world

Ashan Kumar voiced out the valuable lessons that his team has taught the Kabaddi world,

“This season not just me, but the entire Kabaddi world and players can take away a lot of learnings from us.  Discipline, mentality, and unity, performing well despite the lack of experience: our team has sent out a message to all the youth players. Going ahead, we have given them new hope. This will be extremely beneficial to the morale of our country’s youth players. We fought well against all the good teams. I want to encourage all youngsters to play well without fear. In every single household, the people of Tamil Nadu were glued to our games. We will try to get better in the upcoming seasons and win more fans.”