Past the halfway mark of Season 8 of Pro Kabaddi, the raiders are starting to flex the muscle on the League while the youngsters have continued to impress.
We have seen some incredible individual brilliance from our big names raiders in Week 5, but also changes of roles for others which has allowed the likes of Surender Gill and young debutant Mohit Goyat to shine too. With Naveen Kumar still recovering from injury and Pawan Sehrawat’s Bengaluru Bulls struggling with 3 back-to-back losses, we have a couple of fresh names. So here at Man’s Life, with a little data support from our friends at www.KabaddiAdda.com we bring you the Top 5 Raiders of the past week at Pro Kabaddi (week ending 23rd January).
5. MANJEET (TAMIL THALAIVAS): 3 Matches – 60 raids – 33 points
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The Tamil TIE-laivas as we now call them have ridden on the back of their stellar defence but the young man who has led the raiding unit has firmly been Manjeet who is slowly coming into his own in Season 8. An average of 11 points per game over the last 3 games and while he’s, unfortunately, come away with a couple of tough moments on the last raid of the game, he’s still carrying this side with a lack of raid support apparent.
4. PAWAN SEHRAWAT (Bengaluru Bulls): 3 Matches – 53 raids – 33 raid points
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It was a week to forget for the Bengaluru Bulls with 3 losses out of 3 but you can’t take away the work put in by Pawan Sehrawat through each of those games to single-handedly keep them in the hunt. Pawan has unfortunately spent an average of 16 minutes per match on the bench but has still managed to score 33 raid points in his last 3 games for the Bulls. The Bulls will need to quickly find support for their lead raider if they want to stop the run of losses and stop dropping on the points table too.
3. ARJUN DESHWAL (Jaipur Pink Panthers): 3 Matches – 56 raids – 34 raid points
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The Jaipur Pink Panthers stole 2 ties and faced one loss in the 3 games they played over the past week and it’s yet again been the Arjun Deshwal show in the raid department. After a few quiet games where Deepak Hooda outscored his, he’s back with his incredible form and has once again slotted into the top raiders of the week with an average of 11.3 points per game last week.
2. MANINDER SINGH (Bengal Warriors): 3 Matches – 59 raids – 37 raid points
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Another week of Pro Kabaddi and another colossal week for mighty Maninder Singh who has spearheaded the turn-around for the defending Champions, Bengal Warriors. Maninder has scored 37 points in the 2 wins and a tie that the Bengal Warriors had through Week 5. With Bengal rising in confidence and rising on the points table at the right time, the form of their main man Maninder is going to be critical.
1. SURENDER GILL (UP Yoddha): 2 Matches – 40 raids – 30 raid points
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Not many would have expected Surender Gill to top this list but with an average of 15 raid points in the 2 matches last week, the UP Yoddha secondary raider, changed his role alongside Pardeep Narwal to take his side marching towards the top half of the points table. Two wins out of two for the Yoddha squad saw a return to form for their young defence led by Nitesh but it was this raid duo of Surender and the Record-Breaker Pardeep Narwal that were the real fire in the belly of the side.
[Featured Image Credit: UP Yoddha]
Suhail Chandhok
Vertical Head - Sports