PKL 2019 | Coach tells me to play freely as raider, says Pawan Sehrawat

08/30/2019

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Bengaluru Bulls' Pawan Sehrawat has said that coach Randhir Singh has always advised him to play freely each and every time on the mat. Ahead of their first home game, defender Mahender Singh also talked about the team and the defence unit which has been doing well in the seventh season.

Although Pawan Sehrawat was a part of the Bulls in the third and fourth season, he was mostly unknown. However, fortunes turned for him in 2018 when coach Randhir Singh brought him back into the side and he replaced skipper Rohit Kumar as the primary raider of the team ever since his first game in season 6.

Pawan was mainly a defender before but from the previous season, he is the main raider and got the nickname of “High-flyer” because of his excellent skills with the raids, however, when he was asked about his tackles in this season, Pawan replied, “I have been tackling in this season as well and also have made 2-3 mistakes along the way but the coach told me to focus on raiding as you are a raider and give your 100% no matter for which franchise you are playing for.

“Tackle is a part of the game as the raider goes to the other side to get tackled. Now also the coach tells me to play freely as a raider and if I tackle that is also not a problem. So there is no such specific plan, I focus on raiding.”

Bengaluru Bulls, as compared to the previous season, has done well in the defence with players like cover defender Manhender Singh and right corner Saurabh Nandal coming to the party. Mahender, who was present to answer the questions of the reporters, said that doing well in the defence helped the team which already have two quality raiders in Rohit and Pawan.

“Defence matters a lot as we get support in raiding from both of them in every match and if we do well it helps the team a lot. They both are doing well in raiding as it is and if add defence performance to that it benefits the team a lot,” Mahender explained.

“It is our mutual understanding and there is a strategy in place as well so if I tackle, I get support from both corners equally and if the corners are attacking we go in and support them.”

Mahender was also asked about the preparations of the defenders against the top raiders in the league to which the left cover said, “We make strategies before matches so right now we are only thinking of tomorrow’s match. We do whatever coach tells us and if we face a particular situation in which we are unable to tackle them so then also the coach helps us and the captain is also there and he points out and tells us how to go about things.”

The Bulls will be playing their home matches from tomorrow with the first game against Gujarat Fortunegiants.