Pressure and Promise: Bengaluru Bulls coach BC Ramesh lays out bold PKL 12 vision

Bengaluru Bulls have hit the reset button hard ahead of season 12 of the Pro Kabaddi League. The biggest change came with the coaching staff as the legendary coach Randhir Singh Sehrawat was relieved off his duties at the end of the season after the Bulls ended at the bottom of the table with just 19 points after 22 games.

And one of the major changes was seeing a new squad come in and a coach who is familiar with what the Bulls are all about. BC Ramesh is a serial winner as he lifted the PKL title with Puneri Paltan in Season 10. In fact, he was with the Bulls when they last won the title in the Season six as he worked as an assistant coach under Sehrawat.

Now he is with a young team and has the task of replacing a legend at the helm. Speaking to India Today during a virtual interaction, Ramesh said that the pressure is on him when it comes to replacing Sehrawat as the fans will have big expectations from him.

"There is a lot of pressure on me right now, because all our Bengaluru Bulls followers are very dependent on us. They say 'Ramesh sir went to two–three teams and showed good performance in those teams also. The expectation everyone has right now is that the same performance which I produced with the previous teams, the same will be replicated here too — that’s what people keep thinking."

"Now, I have a very big responsibility, becoming the coach in Bengaluru after Season 6. Last year, our team’s performance was very poor, and after that, we changed the whole team and made a new team, and made a different strategy. Whatever chances we had, according to our purse, we tried to make it happen," said Ramesh.

A team in transition but with a lot of promise

During the auction, Ramesh said the focus went on the defence and they invested on young, up-and-coming raiders. The coach feels that he believes the team performance will be very good this time around due to this mantra.

"That’s why this time we built a strong defence and gave chances to young raiders in this season. We have made a totally balanced team. I believe because of this thinking, the team performance will be very good. I expect that they will play well, and all the players are practicing very hard, and whatever coach wants skill-wise, they are working on it," said Ramesh.

When it comes to strategy, Ramesh said his ideology is different from Sehrawat. While the change does excite the coach, he cautioned everyone saying that it will take him time to implement his style with the team.

"My strategy and another coach’s strategy — they are always different, every coach has his own strategy. In the same way, I have explained my kind of strategy to the players and prepared them. We’ll see once the season starts. Very important will be how the team’s combination fits, and how the team performance happens — that has to be seen. In one or two matches at the start, no team can tell anything. After six or seven matches, only then it will be known who is playing how and what," said Ramesh.

The Bulls will begin their campaign with a clash against Ramesh's former side, Puneri Paltan.