PKL 2021: Tamil Thalaivas v/s Bengaluru Bulls - Preview, Expected 7, Live streaming, Players to Watch out, Head to head, Key battle

After a nail-biting draw against Telugu Titans, Tamil Thalaivas' second match of the campaign is also the Southern Derby game. Bengaluru Bulls are eying on this fixture against Thalaivas to make a bounce back to the PKL crusade. Let's unfold the detailed preview of the first 'Kaveri Derby' of Pro Kabaddi League season eight.

Strategic takeaways

Tamil Thalaivas lead was stumbled in the dying minutes of the game and they had to share match points with Telugu Titans. The young Thalaivas roster had a lot of positive takeaways from the previous fixture. Therefore won't be surprised when J Udayakumar retains the same Starting 7 sidelining the likes of Sagar Krishna and Santhapanaselvam.

Bengaluru had a disastrous outing in the U Mumba clash where the Bulls defence was completely off the mark. Their only defensive takeaway from the last match was young cover defender Mayur Jagannath Kadam who had a memorable debut performance. Surprisingly, left corner defender Amit Sheoran was excluded from Starting 7. But, Amit eventually had to step out of the substitution bench due to circumstances and is expected to make his comeback as well.

Head to Head

Bengaluru Bulls have dominating track record against the Chennai-based franchise in Thalaivas' short PKL history. Thalaivas managed to secure only one victory from the total of seven encounters between these sides. Performing against the Bulls has always been a tough task for Thalaivas throughout their franchise history. But this Tamil Thalaivas roster seems different and has the potential to break the Bulls' five-match winning streak against them.

Overall H2H record

7 - Matches

6 - Bengaluru Bulls

1 - Tamil Thalaivas

0 - Tie

When to watch?

'The Kaveri Derby' is the second game of matchday 3. The action will begin at 8:30 PM IST just right after the first battle between U Mumba and Dabang Delhi KC on 24th December of 2021.

Live Streaming

All the matches are expected to be broadcast on the Star Sports Network on television. You can also tune in to Disney+Hotstar for live streaming.

Expected 7

Tamil Thalaivas:

K Prapanjan (Raider)

Manjeet Dahiya (Raider)

Ajinkya Pawar (Raider)

Mohit Jakhar (Left Cover)

Surjeet (Right Cover)

Sahil Gulia (Left Corner)

Sagar Rathee (Right Corner)

Squad: Surjeet (C), K Prapanjan (VC), Manjeet Dahiya, Ajinkya Pawar, Athul MS, Bhavani Rajput, Sandaruwan Asiri, Sagar Krishna, Sourabh Patil, Santhapanaselvam, Anwar Saheed Baba, Himanshu, Sagar Rathee, M Abhishek, Mohammad Tuhin Tarafder, Sahil, Ashish, Mohit

Bengaluru Bulls:

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat (Raider)

Chandran Ranjit (Raider)

GB More (Raider)

Mahender Singh (Left Cover)

Mayur Kadam (Right Cover)

Amit Sheoran (Left Corner)

Saurabh Nandal (Right Corner)

Squad: Pawan Kumar Sehrawat (C), Mahender Singh (VC), Chandran Ranjit, Deepak Narwal, GB More, Abolfazl Mghsodlou, Dong Geon Lee, Rohit Sangwan, Banty, Naseeb, Amit Sheoran, Saurabh Nandal, Ziaur Rahman, Mayur Kadam, Mohit Sehrawat, Ankit, Vikas, Rohit Kumar, Vinod Naik

Players to Watch out For

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat (Bengaluru Bulls)

Surjeet (Tamil Thalaivas)

Manjeet Dahiya (Tamil Thalaivas)

Chandran Ranjit (Bengaluru Bulls)

Mahender Singh (Bengaluru Bulls)

Key Battle

Pawan Sehrawat vs Surjeet

Surjeet becomes monstrous whenever he faces the red army of Bengaluru Bulls. Even after having an average season seven campaign, Puneri Paltan still completed a double win over Bengaluru under the leadership of Surjeet. The legendary right cover defender scored High 5s in both seventh season matches against the Bulls. Meanwhile, high-flyer Pawan Kumar Sehrawat scored 28 raid points including Super 10s in both games against Tamil Thalaivas.