Arjun Deshwal vs Bharat: How the two aces shared in PKL season 9

Both the raiders were occupying the top two spots in the top raid points list.

Arjun Deshwal from Jaipur Pink Panthers and Bharat Hooda from Bengaluru Bulls were the top two raiders with the most raid points in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 9. Both the raiders were influential in the raiding department leading from the front and scoring 296 points (Arjun Deshwal) and 279 points (Bharat) respectively.

This was the fourth season for Arjun Deshwal who is an experienced raider compared to Bharat. Arjun first played for U Mumba for the initial few seasons ( 6 and 7) and then shifted his base to Jaipur Pink Panthers. Overall, Arjun played 22 matches for U Mumba scoring 110 points combining the stats of seasons 6 and 7. It was in season 7 that Arjun got to feature in the playing 7 consistently playing 19 matches and scoring 106 raid points.

None of the other raiders (Ajith Kumar, Rahul Chaudhari, and Bhavani Rajput) scored more than 100 points. Every other team (apart from Telugu Titans) had two raiders scoring more than 100 points each which wasn't the case with two-time champions. Ajith Kumar in the end proved to be of great help when he scored back-to-back super 10s the time when Arjun Deshwal’s form dipped a bit. In the initial matches, it was the performance of Arjun that helped the team score raid points and the team’s defence proved to be the difference.

U Mumba released Arjun ahead of the season 8 auctions and Jaipur were quick to grab him with the pick proving to be an influential factor for Jaipur performing well in season 9. He stamped his authority in season 8 scoring 268 points and was in the top 5 list of the raiding points chart just below Naveen Kumar and Pawan Sehrawat. 

Bharat was the main raider for Bulls after they lost Pawan Sehrawat in auction

Bharat Hooda started his career in season 8 and was the secondary raider helping out Pawan Sehrawat. According to the coach of Bengaluru Bulls -Bharat has not played professional Kabaddi at any age group level nor the University level and neither did he have any equipment with him to play the sport. Randhir Singh Sehrawat spotted the youngster at an event and looking at his talent he brought him to Bengaluru Bulls. The move proved to be a great one firstly gaining experience in his first season and then leading the raiding charts in the second season.

On many occasions, Bengaluru Bulls has conceded a lead of more than 10 points at the end of the first half and it was Bharat who bailed the side out of difficult situations and won crucial matches on his own. The tall lanky raider had the ability to score quick points through both bonus and touch points taking full use of his advantage.  

	Arjun Deshwal	Bharat Hooda
Raid Points	296	279
Successful Raids	237	222
Super 10s	17	16
Total points	296	282
Super Raids	7	11
Do-or-Die Raids	38	27
Avg Raid Points	12.33	12.13
Matches	24	23

Arjun Deshwal won the green armband award in PKL season 9

Comparing the charts for both the raiders all the stats are pretty much closer except for the do-or-die raids. Bharat had good support in the raiding department with Neeraj Narwal and at times Vikash Kandola scoring points and probably this could have been the reason for Bharat scoring fewer points in do-or-die raids. On the contrary, Arjun Deshwal had no other option than to score points on his own throughout the league phase.

Neeraj Narwal in particular was of great help to Bharat Hooda who scored points in both the attack and defensive sections. Overall both the players played exceptionally well and were the top two raiders in PKL season 9.