Thalaivas coach confident of winning trophy

CHENNAI: After narrowly missing out on a place in the final of last edition’s Pro Kabaddi League, Tamil Thalaivas coach Ashan Kumar is confident of his team ending its title drought in the ongoing season. Ashan took over as coach midway through last season after the team was slow off the blocks. He sparked a dramatic turnaround helping the team qualify for the playoffs for the first time since its debut in 2017. The Thalaivas got off to a good start this season beating former champion Dabang Delhi in its opening match.

“I’ve complete faith in Sagar Rathee and Ajinkya Pawar and expect that they will go from strength to strength and build on last season’s success. Sagar is a brilliant player as well as a competent leader,” said Ashan, following the team’s victory. Ashan reserved special praise for raider Narender who was last season’s breakout star. “Narender was a breakout raider for us last season and in the entire league. I’m supremely confident that he will cross 300 raid points this year and will be a key member for us again. We have practiced well in the build-up to the tournament and all our players will bring their A game when called into action,” added the seasoned coach.

Turning his thoughts to Pawan Sehrawat moving to Telugu Titans, Ashan felt his team has enough quality to fill the void. “Other raiders in our team will make up for his (Pawan) absence. Pawan is an excellent raider but we have up and coming players who will go the extra yard to fill his void. We lost the semis by two points last season. We have trained hard in the pre-season and won’t repeat last season’s mistakes,” opined Ashan about his team’s prospects for this year.

“When I took over as coach last season the team wasn’t doing well. After that we improved considerably. I tried to motivate the players and instilled confidence in them and made every effort to turn the season around and we succeeded,” replied Ashan when asked about his impact.

Meanwhile, captain Sagar also exuded optimism that his team will rise to the occasion and go all the way. “We lost by a narrow margin in the semi-finals to Puneri Paltan last year. The main reason was some of our key players got injured at a crucial stage but this time we have focused a lot on fitness. I have immense faith in myself and the other defenders’ ability and we will certainly do better than last year,” observed Sagar.

The defensive lynchpin was quick to give credit to coach Ashan for last season’s resurgence. “At the beginning our performance wasn’t good as we lost quite a few matches. But with the appointment of Ashan Kumar our mindset changed as he brought about changes in our training regimen and helped us reach the semi-finals,” added Sagar.

As for the players acquired at the auction, Sagar said, “I’m satisfied with the players we have assembled and I’m hopeful that we will win the trophy.”