"I enjoy both, but raid more": Gujarat Giants all-rounder Parteek Dahiya picks his favourite role

Gujarat Giants (GG) all-rounder Parteek Dahiya on Friday revealed that he enjoys both his roles, but over and above that, raiding, as he has practised it more extensively. Parteek made his Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) debut with Gujarat Giants in Season 9 and has been part of the team ever since.

"I started playing as a defender in the beginning. I used to play right corner. I started playing as a raider after that, so I enjoy both, but raids more because I have practised it more," Parteek told ANI. Parteek highlighted that GG's newly appointed coach, Jaivir Sharma, has been working on refining his raiding skills, which he utilised in his initial seasons, to help him reduce errors.

"In my starting two seasons and my previous one, there was a slight difference in my raiding. The skills that I used earlier, I reduced their use. Coach has tried to improve that. He has focused more on my skills from seasons 9 and 10," he added. Prateek lauded the Gujarat Giants team, owned by Adani Sportsline, for consistently giving young players opportunities from the outset, and believes that no other PKL franchise supports its youth as much as GG does.

"Adani Sports Line gives young players a chance from the start. They support them a lot. I don't think there is a franchise in the league that doesn't support its young players as much as Adani Sports Line," he concluded. GG raider Himanshu Singh opened up about Gujarat's defensive lapses in their opening match, noting that despite a strong overall performance, a few errors cost them the game, and vowed that GG will work on improving those mistakes moving forward.

Currently in his fifth Pro Kabaddi League season, Himanshu is representing Gujarat Giants for the second consecutive year in Season 12. He began his PKL journey with Tamil Thalaivas, where he spent three seasons before making the switch to Gujarat Giants. GG is currently placed at the bottom of the PKL points table. The team suffered a defeat in their initial matches of the ongoing PKL against U Mumba and Puneri Paltan.

"In the first match, we lost a lot of points in defence. Our first match was good; all the teams played well. There were minor mistakes, which is why we lost the first match. We will work on that. We will improve on the mistakes we made in the previous fixtures," Himanshu said. Singh emphasised that coach Sharma has advised them to focus on full-court play and bonus points, as their raiders scored fewer bonus points in previous matches compared to other teams.

"He [Jaivir Sharma] told me to play in full court and pay more attention to the bonus points. In our previous matches, our riders have got fewer bonus points. In other teams, there are only 7 to 10 bonus points," he concluded. Gujarat Giants will next lock horns with Tamil Thalaivas in match number 18 in the ongoing PKL on Saturday. (ANI)

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