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Pro Kabaddi League’s best raider, Pardeep Narwal, says PKL can boost careers of budding stars
In the span of four years, he has become a star performer and has played a major part in making Patna Pirates, his team, champions three times in a row in PKL Season 3, 4 and 5.
Arguably the best raider in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), 22-year-old Pardeep Narwal, believes that the league sets your career apart and he is the living example of it.
In 2015, hardly anyone recognised Narwal, however, in 2019 the ‘Dubki King’ aka Pardeep Narwal is synonymous with best kabaddi players in the country. In the span of four years, he has become a star performer and has played a major part in making Patna Pirates, his team, champions three times in a row in PKL Season 3, 4 and 5.
With PKL being the second most watched league after the Indian Premier League, it has given youngsters an opportunity to make an impressive career graph. “PKL is best thing that happened to the sport. Give your best in this league and you will make your career in kabaddi. I advice youngsters to grab every opportunity that they get and give their best performance.”
“For example, Siddharth Desai performed brilliantly in Season 6 and now, he has got the highest bid for Season 7 (Rs1.45cr by Telugu Titans). For the youth, PKL is the best platform,” added Narwal, who holds the record of most number of raid points in a match (34 points) and also the highest number of points in single raid (8 points).
It was only in last season when Patna Pirates failed to qualify for the play-off’s although Narwal collected 233 raid points in the 21 matches he played.
“In the last season, my team did not perform well as a unit. The defence and offence both made many mistakes. We will be prepared for it this season,” said Narwal, who had come to shoot for a PKL advertisement campaign at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje.
“It feels good that like cricketers, we are also shooting advertisements and we will be also seen on television screens,” added Narwal.
Season 7 of Pro Kabaddi League will commence from July 20 and the schedule of the tournament will be decided next week.
Player to role model
Narwal who has captained Pirates for Season 5 and 6 has set very high standards which has turned him into a role model for youngsters.
“Everybody now knows me. Whenever my name is called out, it gives me great satisfaction. People ask me about ‘dubki’ practice. Even in my home town, there were only a couple of players playing in the PKL in 2015, but now the number has gone up to 25 players,” added Narwal.
The road to success was not easy for Nawal, as he did not have an impressive start in Season 2, but his fortunes changed when he joined the Patna Pirates squad.
“I did not performed well for the Bengaluru Bulls. Once I started performing, people started discussing about me. I also started playing without any fear and it helped me improve my performance,” added Narwal, who holds a record of collecting the most number of raid points in single season (369 in Season 6).
Captaincy tough job
For Narwal, captaincy was not easy at the start since it brought with it a lot of pressure, but now he is getting used to it.
“As a player you can perform freely, but when you are the captain, you have additional pressure and you have to think lot about the team and other players. I used to find it hard at the start,” added Narwal.
Stats of previous six seasons
Matches played: 85
Total points earned: 865
Most point in a match: 34 (scored against Haryana Steelers in play-off match in Season 5)
