Gujarat Fortunegiants Pro Kabaddi Season 7 Team Analysis

The Pro Kabaddi Auction ahead of Season 7 was a highly anticipated affair with several teams looking to put together the remaining pieces of the jigsaw puzzle but also others looking to hit the reset button as they move forward with a completely new unit filled with new personnel. The auction wasn’t short of the star quotient either, with the likes of Monu Goyat, Rahul Chaudhari, Abozar Mighani, Sandeep Narwal, Nitin Tomar, Rishank Devadiga and Siddharth Desai all up for grabs!

There are positives and negatives when it comes to re-booting a side completely in an auction that has 12 teams vying for top players. On one hand, the purse available is significantly larger (teams like Puneri Paltan, Telugu Titans & UP Yodha had this luxury) than several other sides that have retained their core and that gives the team owners the ability to bully the auction a little and raise the price of players which competing owners definitely want back in their squads. On the other hand however, with 11 other teams vying for each player, the chances of putting together a balanced side from scratch become harder than when it was in an 8-team league and each team’s strategy tables have gotten smarter too with every passing auction.

Time to jump straight into our analysis of each team ahead of this Pro Kabaddi Season 7 and give you a detailed breakdown of the side with the strengths and potential gaps, which need to be addressed before July arrives. We at Kabaddi Adda have decided to detail each squad with a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) to understand where they currently stand but also to give all Kabaddi fans an idea of where these teams could find room to improve as the season kicks off…and we certainly expect a few surprises too!

The Gujarat Fortunegiants approach season 7 of the PKL probably wondering what they must do to get past that final hurdle. The most successful of the four new teams that have joined the PKL, they have been the side to beat in PKL 5 and PKL 6 but on both occasions, faltered at the final hurdle with the title within touching distance.  It’s a team that is built around the nucleus of Coach Manpreet’s squad – cover defenders Sunil & Parvesh and lead raider Sachin Tanwar – all of whom have been retained / bought back by the squad, together with Rohit Gulia (2nd raider) and right corner Ruturaj Koravi.

The ethos of the team is built around honing young talent and largely features no superstar names to make it a one-man-army; and that mantra has worked through Manpreet’s ability to find and nurture new talent but most importantly the ability to play Pro Kabaddi as one cohesive unit the minute they set foot onto the Kabaddi mat. The lack of leaders who can step up is still a concern for the squad with the team still being extremely young (in terms of age & experience at this level) and that puts a little extra pressure on young captain, Sunil Kumar and also on the Coach himself. Sunil & Parvesh have been the glue to this setup for two seasons straight but if teams find a way past them, Gujarat will need to manufacture a plan B very quickly in PKL 7. 

The ethos of the team is built around honing young talent and largely features no superstar names to make it a one-man-army

The squad has however lost the services of a key left raider in Prapanjan and wear a slightly depleted coat this time in the raid department although it gives usually underutilized men like More GB, Abolfazl and the returning Gurvinder an opportunity to make a real mark on the league and give their careers a huge boost. Vinod Kumar comes in from U Mumba as a real asset to this squad as a perfect team man who can chip in with his raiding and defensive skill and could be a key man to watch but the early prediction is that it could be a season where the Fortunegiants might find it hard to replicate their fortunes of the last two seasons.

They have invested in a lot of largely untested youth yet again but it remains to be seen whether Manpreet can squeeze all the potential out of this squad and get them to test the big boys