"I have no words"- Puneri Paltan coach Ajay Thakur explains why he substituted 6 out of his 7 players in PKL 2025 match vs Patna Pirates

Puneri Paltan coach Ajay Thakur was speechless after his team's big defeat against the Patna Pirates in Pro Kabaddi 2025. Thakur admitted that he had no words to describe how Pune lost to Patna by 37-48 in Vizag.

Pune entered as favorites to win against Patna because Pune held the top spot in the standings, while Patna were at the bottom with zero points. However, Patna blew away Pune and registered a 11-point win.

The situation got so bad for Puneri Paltan that head coach Ajay Thakur substituted six out of the seven players in the playing seven. Except Abinesh Nadarajan, all Pune players were taken off the mat by coach Thakur. Explaining the decision, Thakur said at the post-match press conference:

"I have no words. No worries but, we will accept it. I will praise Patna Pirates. They played very aggressively. Even when we made a small mistake, they made us pay. I don't think any of their raiders played safe. They all tried to score points."

"At one point, I thought it was impossible to make a comeback. So, I did not want any of my players to get injured while trying to play aggressively. I changed my first seven and gave a chance to new players."

Notably, substitute raider Sachin Tanwar emerged as the top-scorer for Puneri Paltan with six points. Another substitute who performed well was Abhishek Gunge, who returned with five points.

"I saw many weaknesses in the team today"- Ajay Thakur reflects on Puneri Paltan's defeat against Patna Pirates in Pro Kabaddi 2025

Puneri Paltan were down by 10-27 against Patna Pirates at half time. The lead expanded to more than 20 points shortly after half time, and that was when Ajay Thakur substituted almost all of his players.

Thakur further shared his thoughts on the game and said that his team's left side defenders had no clue of how to stop Patna Pirates raider Ayan.

"Our entire left side defense was clueless against Ayan. I changed the corner. I changed one player, I changed another player, I tried another player, but we could not stop him. I saw many weaknesses in the team today. We have one more match here. We will try to bounce back," Ajay Thakur said.

Ayan scored 21 points against Puneri Paltan. He scored 17 raid points and four bonus points while getting tackled only twice in 24 raids. It will be interesting to see if Pune can recover from this defeat and bounce back against UP Yoddhas on September 10.