As Hyderabad Black Hawks takes on Calicut Heroes on Monday, all eyes are on the 21-year-old Guru Prasanth, whose performance saw the home team cruise to two consecutive wins in the Prime Volleyball League 2022.
Donning the No. 15 jersey, Guru came into the limelight with his ability to reverse losing matches. It bagged him two consecutive 'player of the match' awards for his prowess against Chennai Blitz 5-0 and Kolkata Thunderbolts.
Despite being in the spotlight, Guru does not feel burdened by the pressure to perform better in the upcoming match. “I'm not feeling that kind of pressure. I think I have done my job well and am looking forward to doing better in the future. Even if we fail, we have to pick ourselves and play the upcoming matches. Feeling pressure won't help us,” Guru said during a virtual media interaction.
The Hyderabad Black Hawks is the only team in PVL 2022 with a foreign head coach – Ruben Wolochin. Guru believes, “With a foreign coach, we have a video analyzing session every day to rectify mistakes. We also have a video session before the match to analyze the opponents and formulate a pre-game plan.”
Addressing the lack of a video analyzing and data-based system for volleyball in India, Guru said, “It is not about the Indian coaches, but India needs to use the video analyzing system and become more data-based. We need infrastructure to make it more common, so Indian coaches can get those opportunities to try it.”
Before the match against Chennai Blitz, the Black Hawks had lost two consecutive matches against Ahmedabad Defenders and Bengaluru Torpedoes after winning its opening match against Kochi Blue Spikers.
Guru made it to the starting lineup against Chennai Blitz and Kolkata Thunderbolts and turned the tide in Hyderabad’s favour. “After the two defeats, we didn't have any other option. Our only option was to bounce back otherwise we would be out before the knockout stage. Everyone gave their 100 per cent.”
With five days gap before the match against Calicut Heroes, Guru wants Black Hawks to be the first team to win a match after a long break. “Every team having several days gap till now have lost their match, even if they had a good winning streak before the gap. We want to be the first team to not be defeated after this long gap and are trying to be positive.”
Hyderabad Black Hawks is currently placed second in the points table with seven points, and a win against Calicut Heroes will cement its place in the top four and qualify for the semifinals of PVL 2022.
Rupay Prime Volleyball league is shown on SONY TEN 1 (English), SONY TEN 3 (Hindi), SONY TEN 4 (Tamil & Telugu) & SONY TEN 2 (Malayalam) channels.
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