Pro Kabaddi PKL 8: The first week of the ninth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League had already given us some exhilarating action with all the 12 teams having begun their fight for the title. Defending champions Dabang Delhi are being led for the first time by their star raider Naveen Kumar and they have won all the three matches so far with Naveen yet again topping the raiders points table. Follow InsideSport.IN for more updates.
Pro Kabaddi League: From Naveen Kumar to Arjun Deshwal , Top 5 Raiders from the first week of Pro Kabaddi League season 9 – Check Out
UP Yoddha’s Surender Gill, Bengal Warriors’ Manpreet Singh, Jaipur Pink Panthers Arjun Deshwal and Gujarat Giants’ Rakesh have also put in some brilliant performances in the raiding department for their respective teams. InsideSport takes a look at the Top 5 raiders of the season.
Naveen Kumar – Dabang Delhi [41 POINTS]
Having impressed in the last three editions of the league, 22-year old Naveen Kumar was given the responsibility of captaining the Dabang Delhi side, who are the defending champions. Naveen started off the tournament on a bright note by racking up 41 raid points in just three matches so far. What is more impressive in Naveen’s performance is, out of 36 successful raids he has scored 41 raid points. He has been impressive as he has picked up Super 10s everytime he has stepped on to the mat. His single-man show is enought for Dabang Delhi to seal three successive wins in three matches so far as they are currently on top of the points table this season.
Surender Gill – UP Yoddhas [33 POINTS]
Surender Gill who finished as the raider with the most points for UP Yoddhas in the last edition has continued his brilliant show for his team in the raiding department. Gill had a slow start to the season as in the first two matches he managed to score only 13 raid points. Especially against U Mumba, he could only score 4 raid points. However he came back to form in UP Yoddhas’ next contest against Dabang Delhi. He single-handedly collected 21 raid points and became the first raider in this edition of the league to pick up more than 20 raid points in a single match. His efforts however did not turn out to be fruitful as UP Yoddha lost the contest against the defending champions.
Maninder Singh – Bengal Warriors [29 POINTS]
Maninder Singh is continuing the brilliant show for Bengal Warriors this season. The captain of the franchise has collected 29 points in three matches so far. He started the season by picking up 7 points against Haryana Steelers. In the next two games, he has picked up Super 10s as he scored 11 points each against Telugu Titans and Bengaluru Bulls. As Maninder’s performance improved, the team also won their last two matches after beginning the campaign with a loss. Maninder Singh will yet again have to play a big role single-handedly to help his team reach the playoffs this season.
Rakesh – Gujarat Giants [27 POINTS]
Gujarat Giants’ Rakesh has given impressive performances in the two games that he has played in this season so far. In the team’s first game of the tournament against Tamil Thalaivas he scored 13 points while against Dabang Delhi he took 15 points and his efforts includes one successful tackle points. With these performances, he has emerged as the team’s best raider despite the presence of skipper Chandran Ranjith, who is struggling for form. However Rakesh’s brilliant performances were not enough as the team is yet to register their first victory in the tournament. Rakesh hopes that his skipper Ranjith gets back to form soon so that he gets a solid backup in order to help his team clinch victories.
Arjun Deshwal – Jaipur Pink Panthers [189 POINTS]
After a brilliant show for Jaipur Pink Panthers last season in which he racked up 267 raid points and finished as the second best raider of PKL Season 8, Arjun Deshwal was retained by the franchise ahead of the auctions this year. The raider is once again paying back to the franchise for the faith shown in him as he has already accumulated 25 raid points in just two matches. Especially in Pink Panthers last game, he was in top notch form as he clinched 17 raid points in total that helped his team defeat Patna Pirates 35-30. He is currently fifth in the list of most raid points after week 1 of the ninth edition of the league.
Pro Kabaddi League: From Naveen Kumar to Arjun Deshwal , Top 5 Raiders from the first week of Pro Kabaddi League season 9 – Check Out
Editors pick
