What went wrong with Gujarat Fortune Giants
After reaching 2 consecutive Pro Kabaddi finals Gujarat Fortune Giants were expected to mount a serious challenge for the Pro Kabaddi Season 7 trophy. Coach Manpreet Singh after the auctions was quite confident of doing well instead the Fortune Giants failed to make the play-offs for the first time in Pro Kabaddi League.
We look at the reasons for their poor showing: Gujarat Fortune Giants
Poor Raiding: Gujarat Fortune Giants always boasted quality raiding units which had quality and depth in their raiding ranks. In Pro Kabaddi Season 5 Gujarat Fortune Giants had the likes of Sukesh Hegde, young Sachin, Rohit Gulia, Rakesh Narwal and the tall Mahendra Ganesh Rajput. It was the same in Pro Kabaddi Season 6 where their raiding was led by the outstanding Sachin ably supported by Rohit Gulia, Mahendra Ganesh Rajput, Ajay Kumar and Dong Geon Lee. In Pro Kabaddi Season 7 Sachin struggled for form and fitness while their youngsters Harmanjit and Sonu Gehlawat were inconsistent, only Rohit Gulia showed some spark leading to an inadequate raiding unit.
Too much confidence on youth: Gujarat Fortune Giants went into the Pro Kabaddi Season 7 without taking any experienced corners. Gujarat Fortune Giants relied on their NYP talents of Sumit and Ankit unfortunately for Gujarat Fortune Giants both the young corners failed to make an impact regularly making costly errors. Sumit and Ankit’s poor performance put too much pressure on cover duo of Sunil and Parvesh. The Railways duo also struggled due to increased demands of covering for the young corner duo. The performance of left corner Pankaj when he was given the opportunity proved the folly of Manpreet Singh in benching Pankaj for Sumit.
Lack of Impact Subs: Manpreet Singh and Gujarat Fortune Giants since their debut in Pro Kabaddi Season 5 prided themselves in having substitutes who could make game changing impacts. Mahendra Ganesh Rajput regularly made decisive impact at crucial moments which turned tight matches in favour of Gujarat Fortune Giants. In Pro Kabaddi Season 7 Gujarat Fortune Giants didn’t possess the players to make the difference from the bench which resulted in them losing quite a few close matches.