5 things that went wrong with Tamil Thalaivas in their home leg of Season 6

After retaining Ajay Thakur for an enormous amount of ₹76.23 lakhs, the team management of Tamil Thalaivas was consistent in building a strong squad for Season 6. The disappointed people of Chennai had some reason to smile as the team got predicted as one of the strongest on paper.

The Chennai leg of Pro Kabaddi Season 6 commenced in a blockbuster fashion as the team that stood in the bottom of the table last year beat the 3-time defending champions, Patna Pirates, outclassing them in both raiding and defensive unit in a one-sided encounter (42-26).

In spite of having a Super 10, Pardeep Narwal had a nightmare with Manjeet Chhillar and Amit Hooda into the opposite corners. Ajay Thakur's masterclass in the raiding with 14 raid points in 18 raids gave heart pounding remembrance of many fans' previous prediction.

However, a U-turn that awaited Tamil Thalaivas turned practical as things got worse when they lost their remaining four games versus U.P. Yoddha (32-37), Telugu Titans (28-33), Bengaluru Bulls (37-48), and Bengal Warriors (27-36).

The defense that looked dominant at Day 1 changed into a sluggish one. Manjeet and Co. started gifting points to the opposition executing most of the tackles ahead of the bonus line. Ajay Thakur who had fantastic support in CPO Surjeet Singh, Surjeet got an injury that led Ajay to carry the raiding burden on his own. Jasvir Singh's effort was of no use to the team.

In the end, Thalaivas ended their campaign similar to what it looked like back in Season 5. Despite having big names in the squad, many Kabaddi fans have non-arguably predicted the same fortune for Thalaivas at the end of Season 6. It will be much harder for the team to build a consistent squad with a lot of injury-prone names in the squad ahead of the tournament.

Let's take a look at five reasons on what went wrong for Tamil Thalaivas in their home leg:

#5 Manjeet Chhillar - Left Corner?

Manjeet Chhillar's role as a left corner

Considering how Manjeet Chhillar's speed and reflexes have reduced over the years and him starting to struggle with his age-factor, Manjeet is a perfect fit in the left cover position. As a corner defender, Manjeet's only arsenal move is the diving ankle hold.

A cover defender can easily take advantage of less reaction time in an attempt of a block/ dash. However, a corner defender needs to have the enormous agility to come down the opposite corner and block/dash the raider which Manjeet lacks.

Using Manjeet as a left corner could be considered a risky move against Pardeep Narwal because of his weakness to the diving ankle hold. However, as it became permanent, Manjeet kept losing points letting the raiders go free.

Manjeet Chhillar could only score 16 tackle points in 31 attempts which could have been far more better if he played the left cover.

#4 Advance Tackles by the Cover Defenders

C. Arun attempting a diving ankle hold on Maninder Singh.

In spite of having good corner defenders in the team, if the covers go for advance tackles, the team gifts lots of points to the opposition in Kabaddi. The team's last year's cover defenders, Darshan J., and C. Arun had a nightmare of a time in the cover defence.

In the second match versus U.P. Yoddha, the shades started becoming real as Darshan J. attempted a lot of dashes when Prashant Kumar Rai was not even close to the bonus line, allowing the raider to cross the midline easily.

Also in the next match versus Telugu Titans, Darshan J. gifted Rahul Chaudhari 4 touch points without a single successful tackle. C. Arun who was a promising super tackle specialist didn't contribute to the team at all. He targetted the lower body of the raiders from the baulk line itself, allowing the raiders to reach the midline easily.

Darshan J. could score 19.04% successful tackles only (4 tackle points in 5 matches) and C. Arun could score 1 tackle points in 9 attempts.

#3 Failure in the Do Or Die Raids

Ajay Thakur attempting to escape versus Bengaluru Bulls.

Do or die raids play a crucial role in reviving the team's lost momentum back to the game where comebacks are usually assured. Ajay Thakur, the finest do or die specialist of Pro Kabaddi lacked answers in the Chennai leg.

Ajay Thakur scored 5 points in do or die situations in 5 matches only. Ajay considered hand touches on the covers rather than taking bonus points underneath the corner defender as the pressure of reviving the players back was immense. As Sukesh Hegde couldn't participate in a single match, Ajay was left out alone in criticality.

Thalaivas occasionally sent Jasvir Singh into the do or die raids, however, Jasvir failed because of his short height and inability to take a touch as the timer runs down. The team had no choice but to pay Jasvir as Surjeet and Sukesh were unavailable.

Tamil Thalaivas showed no signs of a comeback as they failed frequently with their raiding unit.

#2 Improper defensive combination and lack of intensity

The corner-cover combination of Amit Hooda and Manjeet Chhillar was an expectation for many fans to be a killer combination for the raiders. The team, however, decided not to try this only till the 5th match versus Bengal Warriors when everything was out of control.

There were times when the team could take advantage of super tackle situations, but the team decided to send raiders instead of using them resulting in 4 successful super tackles in 5 matches only.

When the opposition took the lead, the team started looking sluggish as if they had no mindset of making a comeback at all. In the 4th match versus Bengaluru Bulls, Pawan Sherawat's 5 and 4 pointer raids devastated the Thalaivas.

However, there were no intentions of the team to keep taking bonuses or use the advantage of super tackles. Only Ajay Thakur scored 20 raid points that night.

#1 Ajay Thakur - The Lone Thalaiva

Thalaivas got shook with Sukesh Hegde's injury in the first match itself. However, things seemed a bit recovered as Surjeet scored 7 raid points in the first match versus Patna.

Ajay stood as the lone warrior in the raiding charge scoring 59 raid points in 5 matches with 3 Super 10s. He could only get a bit support from Athul MS who scored 24 raid points in 4 games.

The team lacked intense raiders from the get-go. Sukesh Hegde, Surjeet Singh, and Jasvir Singh dealt with injuries where it looked as if it was the same Tamil Thalaivas of Season 5. The lack of namely all-rounders except for Manjeet Chhillar (who is a pure defender as of now) also costed the Thalaivas heavily.

Later on, Ajay looked sluggish in the raiding where he got tackled by the left corner defenders namely Vishal Bhardwaj and Ran Singh and pressure was clearly visible on Ajay's face.

Tamil Thalaivas will look to start on a fresh note when they face Bengaluru Bulls away from home for the first time in Season 6 on 17th October 2018.

Edited by Nishant Jayaram