Star-studded UP Yoddhas fall at playoffs hurdle once again

The 'Dubki King' Pardeep Narwal was handed over the captaincy of the side mid-season.

UP Yoddhas finished the PKL season 9 losing to Tamil Thalaivas in the eliminator. This was the fifth consecutive time UP Yoddhas has qualified for the playoffs but hasn't crossed the barrier to reach the finals even once. Pardeep Narwal’s small mistake towards the end cost the team the semifinal spot but the raider put in his best performance throughout the season. The good news for all the fans is that Pardeep Narwal is set to continue playing for UP Yoddhas in PKL season 10 as well.

Top Performers

Pardeep Narwal

Pardeep Narwal finished inside the top 10 of the top raiders list and led UP Yoddhas to the playoffs. Overall the star raider scored 220 points and also became the first player to breach the 1400 raid points mark. He took over the primary raiders' role after Gill was injured and also took on the extra responsibility of being the captain.

Rohit Tomar

Rohit Tomar scored 86 points with 17 of them coming through tackle points. Although the youngster scored only 86 points he had an eventful season partnering with Pardeep Narwal as the secondary raider. Apart from raiding Rohit also chipped in with a good number of tackle points and will be an all-rounder to watch out for in the upcoming season.

Sumit

The left-corner defender scored 54 tackle points in the 21 matches played in PKL season 9. The combination of Sumit and Nitesh Kumar was a deadly combo till season 8 but did not work at all in season 9. The ineffectiveness hurt UP Yoddhas in a few matches but was successful to reach the playoffs. Sumit in particular had few good games and was the only defender from the team to breach the 50 tackle points mark.

Underperformer of the season

Nitesh Kumar

The right-corner defender scored only 34 tackle points in the 23 matches which is the least he has scored in a single season. Nitesh was the first defender to score more than 100 tackle points in a single season but hasn't been able to replicate half of that this season. Due to his poor form he also gave up his captaincy in the midseason which didn't help either and the combination with Sumit too wasn't working. Although he had a poor season Nitesh is in the top 10 of the tackles points (overall) in the Pro Kabaddi League.

Manager’s report card

Jasveer Singh is one of the consistent coaches in the Pro Kabaddi League guiding UP Yoddhas to multiple playoffs. UP Yoddhas has qualified for the playoffs for the fifth successive time since season 5 and in PKL season 9 Jeeva Kumar was the assistant coach. The team performed well without the likes of Surinder Gill who played only 13 matches overall. The coach should have replaced Nitesh or given him a break for a few matches with the kind of form he was in.

Lessons to be learned

The team did not make use of their bench strength with the likes of Nitin Tomar who was considered a tertiary raider wasn't given much game time. Although Rohit Tomar chipped in with valuable contributions the experience of Nitin could have also helped UP Yoddhas. In the defence, the likes of Nitesh should have been given break and tried out other players in the right-corner position.