The Tamil Thalaivas have been an enigmatic team to follow this season. They started with a crushing victory over the defending champions in the first match. With three home games to follow, the scene was set for the Tamil Thalaiavas to really get a fast start to this season’s campaign.
Things have not quite panned their way as they ended up losing the next three matches. Amidst that losing streak, though, are two wonderful performances from some of their senior players. Ajay Thakur has scored 54 points in Pro Kabaddi 6 so far, the most for any player by a huge distance and easily his best start ever.
Manjeet Chillar has been similarly brilliant on the defensive side and has 13 tackle points to his name already, another high for the tournament. With the most successful tackles and raids to individual players on their side, the Tail Thalaivas would be wondering where it is that they are losing matches.
For one thing, the team need to find some more support for Amit Hooda on the defensive side, Darshan and Ponparthiban are his cover on the right hand side but they have been unable to successfully deflect some of the pressure off him.
Athul MS has started the season well and is proving to be an excellent raider to support Thakur but players like Abhinandan, Anil Kumar, and Jasvir Singh need to start pulling their weight on the team as well.
The Bengal Warriors finished the league stage on top of Group B and would have been very disappointed to miss out after that. There is no denying that the core of their team performed admirably last season and this is why they have retained 7 players from last year’s squad.
Surjeet Singh, the skipper, will lead the defense from the all-important right corner position and ensure his team is very difficult to score against. A defense first strategy paid off divideds for the Bengal Warriors last season and so we have no doubt they are going to go in that direction agai.
Baldev Singh, Adarsh T, Ravindra Ramesh Kumawat, and Shrikanth Tewthia are all going to man important positions as well. Raiders Jang Kun Lee and Maninder Singh have also been retainhed from last season and will form the heart of the attack.
Expect a hurting Bengal Warriors side to come hard at the Tamil Thalaivas in their opening fixture.
The Bengal Warriors lead the head to head between the two sides 2-1. The format of Pro Kabaddi is such that any team can beat the other one on its day but we see the Bengal Warriors dominating the Tamil Thalaivas this season.
The Bengal Warriors have the advantage of continuity in their squad. This is a team filled with proven performers and the hunger to improve on an impressive season last time.
Back the Bengal Warriors to win.