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The Telugu Titans will be hoping to get their campaign, which has been taking a nose-dive off late back to life when they face-off against the Gujarat Fortunegiants in the former's first home leg match of the season at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Vishakapatnam.
The Titans have had a forgettable run to the lead-up to their home leg and by losing all of their previous four matches, they are certainly staring down the barrel while on the contrary, the Fortunegiants have already qualified for the playoffs with some top-flight style of play.
The Titans have been hit by a depleted number of resources to camouflage the poor run Rahul Chaudhari has been having, with the 'raid machine' scoring just 98 raid points from 13 matches while their only bright spark has been the consistent show of skipper Vishal Bharadwaj, whose dominance on the left corner has fetched him 39 tackle points from 9 matches.
Against a defence-heavy Gujarat Fortunegiants, which boasts of the best cover defender-duo of this season in Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal, the pressure will indeed fall on the shoulders of Rahul Chaudhari to fire to see his team home.
On the flipside, Sachin Tanwar and K Prapanjan have assumed the raiding duties for Gujarat but will have to be wary of the threat posed by Abozar Mighani and Vishal Bharadwaj on the far corners.
With two powerhouses facing off against each other, the opening game at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium promises to be a cracker of a contest that might also push Manpreet Singh to try out his bench strength ahead of the playoffs.
Key battles to watch out for
#1 Rahul Chaudhari (Left raider) v Parvesh Bhainswal (left cover)
#2 Sachin (Right raider) v Vishal Bharadwaj (Left corner)
Probable Playing 7
Telugu Titans: Vishal Bharadwaj (C), Rahul Chaudhari, Mohsen Maghsoudlou, Kamal Singh, Farhad Milagardhan, Abozar Mighani, C Manoj Kumar, Rakshith.
Gujarat Fortunegiants: Sunil Kumar (C), Sachin, K Prapanjan, Parvesh Bhainswal, Mahendra Rajput, Ruturaj Koravi, Sachin Vittala.
When and where to watch: 20:00 IST on the Star Sports network and on digital streaming platform Hotstar.
