PKL 11: What's going wrong for Gujarat Giants in Pro Kabaddi 2024?

Gujarat Giants stand at the bottom of the PKL 11 points table after the first leg.

Gujarat Giants are facing one of their biggest breakdowns in Pro Kabaddi League season 11 (PKL 11). The Giants began their PKL career in season 5 and have never had such a poor beginning to any season.

They have qualified for the Playoffs in most of the seasons. Their poorest performance came in season 7 where they ended 9th on the points table. But in PKL 11 they are facing some massive issues which they do not seem to be addressing well till the first leg.

With the first leg coming to an end on Saturday (9 November), Gujarat Giants have completed their matches and stand in the 12th position. Their problems seem to be countless and no solutions are to be seen. Gujrat coach, Ram Mehar Singh, has looked clueless about how to re-organize the Giants’ squad in something which can give them positive results.

After starting their season with a win against the Bulls, Gujarat Giants have lost six consecutive matches and are searching for a win desperately. Here are a few reasons which have been the cause of their downfall:

Lack of pro-active coaching

The coach, Ram Mehar Singh, hasn’t been able to put a team together which can win them matches. The raiding department does not have the depth if any one of them is out of rhythm. Other than Guman Singh, they have not added any raider who can take responsibility.

Similarly, in the defence, they do not have any big names in their squad and that is completely visible in the results the team is experiencing. Above all that, Giants are one team that hasn’t clinched a solid starting 7 and has been experimenting with their combinations rather than keeping it stable and letting it cement.

A Flop show by the defence

Defence is an area which plays a vital role in any team’s success. Gujarat Giants’ defence has been completely thrashed by every opponent they faced except Bengaluru Bulls, that too because the Bulls’ raiders were out of form.

As a result, the Giants have faced defeats with very big margins, the biggest being 19-point margins against Puneri Paltan and Tamil Thalaivas. The Giants have just 41% success tackles and have just 53 tackle points as a team.

Captain not leading from the front

Neeraj Kumar, who was named the captain of the Giants, has been completely out of form in Season 11. He has barely scored any winning points for his team. In six matches, Kumar has scored just five points, which again shows that the Gujarat Giants’ defence hasn’t worked.

No support for Guman Singh in the raiding department

The raiders are having an even worse season than the defenders. Gujarat Giants have just 32% success in their raids. Out of 216 raids, only 70 have been successful. Only Guman Singh is the one who is even getting that little success. Other than him, no raider has been able to leave a mark.

Himanshu Singh is another raider who has scored 28 points but hasn’t been given much opportunity to showcase more. It will be necessary for the Giants to get a couple of raiders enough opportunities and then move forward.

Can Guman Singh take their team to another level? If he does, who will support him as the second raider? There are many questions to be addressed, and that too quickly.

If the Giants need to make a comeback from here, they must fix their top 10 players who are going to represent them in the next few matches and play accordingly. They have to give chances to the in-form players more like Jitender Yadav, Himanshu Singh and Sombir.

Do you think they can make a comeback from here and get themselves into a better position in the points table? Or will they end this season at the bottom of the table? Do let us know your opinions in the comment section.

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