Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five reasons why Tamil Thalaivas can win the title 

The Pro Kabaddi League is all set to stage its biggest edition in history.

The league will see the entry of four new teams this year in the likes of UP Yoddha, Tamil Thalaivas, Haryana Steelers and Gujarat Fortune Giants in addition to the eight original teams.

The season will span 10 states of India with more than 230 players taking the battle to one another on the kabaddi mat in almost 140 matches.

One of the new franchises in the fray is Tamil Thalaivas, co-owned by the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar himself. The team built a competitive squad at the player auctions that were held in May, with some shrewd buys under the aegis of coach Bhaskaran.

The team will feature in the first match of the fifth edition of the tournament when they lock horns with the Telugu Titans at Hyderabad.

The team will play their home games in the city of Chennai at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.

Tamil Thalaivas, in their debut season, will be gunning for the title, and here are five reasons why they can actually go the distance.

#1 Recruiting Ajay Thakur

Choosing Ajay Thakur as their Priority Pick was probably the smartest decision taken by the Tamil Thalaivas think tank ahead of the actual auctions. The star raider has tonnes of experience under his belt and is coming off a high from the Kabaddi World Cup wherein he had a stellar season, being named the Best Raider.

The tall raider, with his swift touches and agility, can leave rival defences shattered if he gets going, and single-handedly take games away from the opposition. With a total of 316 raid points from his 58 matches, he will not only look to increase his individual tally but also lead the team by example.

#2 World Cup winning coach Bhaskaran

Bhaskaran was the coach of the Jaipur team that won the first edition of PKL

Kasinathan Bhaskaran was a great player back in the day and part of the Indian team that won the gold medal at the Asian Games in 1994 and the SAF games in 1995. Subsequently, in the capacity of a coach in the Pro Kabaddi League, he led the Pink Panthers to the title in the inaugural edition and then also plied his trade for the Puneri Paltan before taking over the reins at Tamil Thalaivas.

A key tactician, he was the gaffer of the Indian team which went on to win the Kabaddi World Cup last October and will thus look for similar success with the new franchise. This was evident when he spoke to Firstpost in an interview. "It is our first season and we would ideally look to make it to the semi-final and then strategize further."

#3 Defensive duo of Amit Hooda and C. Arun

Amit Hooda plied his trade for the Jaipur Pink Panthers last season

The team procured the services of young gun Amit Hooda at the auctions for INR 63 lakhs at the auctions. With his agility and presence of mind, Amit will look to increase his tally of 83 defence points from 32 matches.

Assisting him in defence will be the experienced campaigner C. Arun who earlier plied his trade for the Bengal Warriors. Purchased for INR 33 lakhs, he will work in tandem with Amit Hooda to put up a formidable wall and pin down the approaching raiders.

#4 Full capacity squad of 25 players

Tamil Thalaivas made some smart buys at the player auctions in May (Image credits: Tamil Thalaivas Facebook page)

Tamil Thalaivas are the only team in the tournament to have filled their squad completely. They have kept their faith in young and inexperienced players with the strategy being they can be moulded into finished products.

Coach Bhaskaran was confident of the squad's strength. "The coaching staff and management decided to cap our spending on Rs 40 lakh. It is a long season that goes for 13 weeks, there needs to be top-notch fitness and techniques. It is much easier to achieve it with younger players. We have 4-5 players under the age of 22. Many players in our team can play in multiple positions and it adds strength and balance to our team composition."

#5 Customised training sessions

The team players during an exhibition match (Image: Tamil Thalaivas Facebook page)

Since the 15th of June, the entire squad have assembled in Chennai where they have had 90-minute training sessions in the morning focussed on fitness followed by 30-minutes of specific kabaddi related training. But that is not all, the evenings have been reserved for customised training sessions for each player.

In addition to this, the team have also worked on mat coordination by playing quite a few friendly and invitational matches back in Chennai.