"Team was better when Naveen was there"- Rambir Singh Khokhar comments on Dabang Delhi's PKL campaign and their star raider's injury

Rambir Singh Khokhar joined Dabang Delhi KC as their new head coach for Pro Kabaddi League season 10. The team has performed exceptionally well under his guidance. Delhi are currently third in the standings with 40 points from 11 matches.

Naveen Kumar was the main raider and captain of the Dabang Delhi KC squad. However, the 'Naveen Express' got injured during a recent match against the Jaipur Pink Panthers. It was a severe knee injury, which has ruled the star out of the remainder of the season.

Despite Naveen's absence, the team continues to perform well in PKL 10. In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, coach Rambir Singh Khokhar spoke about how the team reacted to Naveen's injury. This was his first message to the players after his injury and several other topics. Here are the excerpts.

Excerpts from Rambir Singh Khokhar's exclusive interview with Sportskeeda

Q. Coach, how do you scout young talent?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: Actually, there's a Talent Identification Scheme of the government. I am a member of that. I am an expert in identifying talent now because I have been doing that job at the Sports Authority of India for years. I observe kids around the age of 12-13 and then bring them to SAI for their further development.

It happens all over India. We search new talent by going to small and major competitions happening across villages. Then, we give them training at academies or at the Sports Authority of India. The same procedure happens here.

We go to competitions, watch young kids play, evaluate their skills, and then we give them a chance here.

We have Ashish in our squad. We saw him playing in Junior Nationals and Junior Federations Cup. He also represented India in the Junior World Cup. Then, we saw him at the Sports Authority of India center in Gandhinagar. After that, we picked him.

Q. You have been coaching for so many years. When you started, there was no so much technology in sport. These days, you can analyze even the smallest things in kabaddi. How did you adapt to the changes?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: See, in the past, there weren't any video analyzers in India for kabaddi. We had those in hockey, football, and cricket. But now, specially, we have for kabaddi. There's also a course on video analyzer for kabaddi.

I take assistance from our sports scientists' staff. We try to do things practically as well by video analysis.

It's better now with video analysis, as compared to the previous era. Now, we can see the mistakes very closely. In the past, we would train man to man practically. We had to show them their mistakes. Now, we have video analysis. So, the players themselves can see their errors.

Q. There must be 100-200 kabaddi players from the Talent Identification program. How do you shortlist around 5 names whom you sign at the PKL Auction?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: We have to think a lot at the auction. The Pro Kabaddi season is very long. We try to see the nature of the player and his background. There are various other things we look at.

Q. Tell us something about your coaching partnership with Joginder Narwal.

Rambir Singh Khokhar: One man can't handle the coaching of the entire team. If there's one more coach present to support you, it becomes better. See, there are two things. One is just to join as a coach to fill up a vacant position, and the other thing is to have proper expertise in it. Theser are two different things.

Joginder Narwal is my student. He has expertise in defense, and his presence has benefited our team a lot.

Q. Dabang Delhi KC has been performing well even in Naveen Kumar's absence. How did the team get adjusted so quickly after Naveen got injured?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: Naveen got injured during the match against Jaipur, where we played out a tie. He hurt his knee. When he got injured, we had a lead in the game.

We have many youngsters, even Naveen is a youngster. I consider him number one raider, but he got injured. At that time, the team came under pressure. Even we came under pressure.

In the next session, I told my team that they will have to manage without Naveen. Ashu took the place of Naveen. We have Meetu Sharma, Manjeet, who are also doing a job. Our team was better when Naveen was there, but now, our team's defense and offense is settled.

Q. Delhi leg of PKL 10 is coming soon. How have you motivated your team for the four home matches?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: See, our team had a camp of one-and-a-half months before the season. The team is so well-prepared that if everyone is fit, no one will feel exhausted. They will treat home matches just like other matches. We will try to do even better in Delhi.

Most of our team is young, so they are fit. Naveen's injury was almost improbable. There was a minimal chance of him getting injured, but it happened. But, we are completely ready for Delhi leg. In fact, we will try to almost qualify for the playoffs just before the Delhi leg, and then in Delhi, we will try to rise to the top.

Q. Teams like Tamil Thalaivas and Telugu Titans have been struggling in PKL 10. Being an experienced coach, what do you think is going wrong for the 2 teams?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: It's a matter of their team management and support staff. I cannot comment anything about that.