PKL Season 11: Tamil Thalaivas' SWOT analysis

After a belowpar campaign last time around Tamil Thalaivas will be raring to put their best foot forward once Season 11 of the Pro Kabaddi League gets underway on October 18 The Thalaivas failed to make it past the league stage last season having qualified for the semifinals in Season 9It goes without saying that they will be keen to return to the PKL 11 Playoffs under the guidance of a dualcoach system For Season 11 the Tamil Thalaivas have appointed Udaya Kumar as head coach and Dharmaraj Cheralathan a former PKL winner as a player as strategy coach to guide the team in a collaborative mannerHaving already retained their core squad from the previous campaign Tamil Thalaivas werenrsquot the busiest at the Season 11 Player Auction table although they did make the most expensive purchase by signing raider Sachin for a whopping INR 215 crores With that in mind letrsquos take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Tamil Thalaivas before the action begins in Season 11Also Read PKL 11 Know all the head coaches participating in Pro Kabaddi Season 11StrengthsThe Thalaivasrsquo biggest strength in Season 11 is likely to be the fact that theyrsquove managed to retain most of their key players from the previous campaign Narender who has picked up 429 raid points in two seasons with the Thalaivas will once again play a crucial role in attack for the teamIn addition the acquisition of Sachin who has accumulated 952 raid points in his PKL career and is the leagues alltime leading scorer of doordie raid points 233 makes it easy to see how formidable the Thalaivasrsquo raiding unit looks on paper Furthermore their backup raiders such as Vishal Chahal who scored 34 raid points in his PKL debut for the Thalaivas last season along with the experienced Chandran Ranjit who has notched up 534 raid points further strengthen their attackTamil Thalaivas have also ensured continuity in defence by retaining Sagar M Abishek Sahil Gulia Himanshu Mohit and Amirhossein Bastami Sahil Gulia and Sagar finished among the top 10 tackle points scorers in PKL 10 with 69 and 66 tackle points respectivelyWeaknessesThat said it will be interesting to see how the likes of M Abishek Himanshu Mohit and Amirhossein Bastami cope should there be an injury to or loss in form for their main defenders Sahil Gulia and SagarSagarrsquos absence from the team due to injury for a few matches last season affected the Thalaivasrsquo overall defensive performance and balance As a result the onus and scrutiny on the Thalaivasrsquo backup defenders will be greater this time around making it imperative for them to step up and deliver should a similar situation ariseAlso Read Aslam Inamdar The face of Puneri Paltanrsquos kabaddi resurgenceOpportunitiesAlready recognised as one of the leaguersquos premier raiders Sachin is just 48 raid points away from completing 1000 in PKL He will look to establish himself as one of the elite raiders in Season 11 after a couple of inconsistent showings over the last couple of campaigns compared to his lofty standardsHe will be hoping to breach the 200 raid points mark in a season for the first time in his career in the upcoming campaign and finds himself in the ideal environment to do so with young Narender alongside him to shoulder the raiding responsibilities a luxury not always afforded to him in the pastThreatsOne area that Tamil Thalaivas would be wary about is their lack of an established allrounder with PKL experience in the team Allrounders are crucial due to the balance they bring to the team courtesy of their ability to chip in with points on both ends of the mat Iranian Moein Safaghi is yet to play in the PKL and putting all the pressure on him as Tamil Thalaivasrsquo sole allrounder could prove to be difficult for a player yet to make his debutIf one of the Thalaivasrsquo starting players is unavailable due to injuries or knocks a quality allrounder would have been the perfect replacement However Tamil Thalaivas will have to look for different solutions if such a situation arises considering the fact that Season 11 will be Moein Safaghirsquos debut campaignThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever