Gujarat Fortune Giants have been the most successful team among the four new franchises that joined the Pro Kabaddi League in season five. Gujarat impressed everyone by topping the Zone A points table in 2017 and 2018. However, they lost the final matches of the tourney to Patna Pirates and Bengaluru Bulls, respectively.

In 2019, the team appointed Rohit Gulia as its captain but failed to make it to the playoffs. The Manpreet Singh-coached outfit finished ninth on the standings with 51 points in 22 games. In their brief existence, Gujarat Fortune Giants have unearthed many young talents. In fact, Pawan Sehrawat was a part of the team in season five, but they released him ahead of PKL 2018.

The picks

Sachin Tanwar was the reason behind the team's success in the first two seasons. His performance dipped in 2019. Still, he managed to score 84 raid points for the Ahmedabad-based franchise. The other two automatic picks are the cover defenders Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal.

The pair of Kumar and Bhainswal have made the life of the opposition raiders a living hell with their terrific defensive techniques. Sunil has 179 tackle points in three seasons for Gujarat, whereas Parvesh has aggregated ten points more than him. They were in their best form during the sixth season. Unfortunately, the 2019 season did not prove to be so memorable for the duo of Sunil and Parvesh.

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The debate

The Gujarat Fortune Giants' all-time seven lead raider is Sachin Tanwar, but his partners have changed frequently over the last three years. Rohit Gulia has been a part of the squad since day one, and the all-rounder's tally of 241 points in 60 games makes him the perfect pick for the secondary raider's role. He was the best raider for Gujarat in season 7, while he can also play a significant role in the team's defense.

Talking about the team's third raider, the three candidates for that spot are - Sukesh Hegde, K. Prapanjan, and Sonu Jaglan. Hegde was the captain of the team in its first season. Sukesh had been excellent for Telugu Titans in the past, but his performances for Gujarat left a lot to be desired. In the only season he played for Gujarat, Sukesh scored 75 raid points in 18 matches, including only one Super 10.

Sonu Jaglan was the team's third raider in 2019. Jaglan was playing his debut season, where he managed to score 72 raid points in 17 matches. He registered two Super 10s, and in one of the league matches, he even scored 17 points.

The last option is K. Prapanjan. The current Bengal Warriors star donned the Gujarat jersey and made it to the finals of PKL 2018. Prapanjan backed Sachin Tanwar in the raiding department by scoring 122 points in 22 matches. His four Super 10s make him the number one choice to take the third raider's spot in this all-time seven.

Speaking of the two corner positions now, the Iranian duo of Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mohajermighani took care of Gujarat's left corner and right corner positions during season five. Both defenders made it to the Top 10 of Most Tackle Points' leaderboard. Surprisingly, Manpreet Singh did not retain either of the two Iranian players for season six. He entrusted the young Indian defenders for this job, but this move did not pay rich dividends to Gujarat.

Ruturaj Koravi scored 47 tackle points in 23 matches of 2018. However, he failed to recreate his performance in the next season. The team management had to change its corner defenders quite frequently in the seventh season. One of the primary reasons behind the downfall of Gujarat Fortune Giants in 2019 was the disappointing form of Sachin and also the constant changes in the corner combinations. Playing with new partners seemingly had an impact on Parvesh Bhainswal and Sunil Kumar's performances as well.

In season five, all four defenders of the Giants were present in the Top 15 of the defenders' leaderboard, highlighting how dominant that combination proved to be against all raiders in the Pro Kabaddi League. Hence, the same four defenders will take the cover and corner positions in the all-time seven of Gujarat Fortune Giants, thereby completing the team. In the next season of Pro Kabaddi League, Gujarat will be keen to improve its defense, especially the right corner and the left corner positions.