PKL 9: Five best debutant raiders of Pro Kabaddi League Season 9

Narender Kandola was the find of the edition for Tamil Thalaivas.

Season 9 of Pro Kabaddi League PKL has unearthed many unknown talents and one such name is the debutant raider, Narender Kandola, from Tamil Thalaivas. The youngster scored a mammoth 249 points in his debut season replacing Pawan Sehrawat in the primary raiding role. The scouting teams for all the franchises put in massive work to find good young players and provide them with the opportunity to play in PKL. 

We take a look at five such debutant raiders who impressed in PKL 9.

5. Pranay Rane – 25 raid points

Matches – 11 | Total Points – 26

The youngster was primarily a substitute throughout the season with U Mumba operating the raiding department mostly with Guman Singh and Ashish. Pranay has one super 10 to his name against Gujarat Giants. And this was the only match where the raider was allowed to raid more (14) with a strike rate greater than 75 per cent. Only towards the end of season 9, Pranay had more opportunities to raid and probably the next season shall be a breakthrough season for the youngster.

4. Vinay Redhu – 38 raid points

Matches – 15 | Total Points – 42

In PKL 9, Vinay Redhu was one of the only raiders who worked well for Telugu Titans, and that too as a debutant. He did a decent job scoring 38 raid points and four tackle points. Season 9 was one of the worst seasons in terms of performance for Telugu Titans with Siddharth Dessai only raider to cross the 100 raid points mark in the season. Along with Vinay, Hanumanthu too played well scoring 24 raid points along with a super 10 against Tamil Thalaivas.  

3. Jai Bhagwan – 75 raid points

Matches – 19 | Total Points – 83

Jai Bhagwan scored a total of 75 raid pints and seven tackle points (with two super tackles) in season 9. The only super 10 of the season came against Bengaluru Bulls along with contributing in the defensive section. Bhagwan was initially used as a supporting raider to Guman Singh but towards the mid-season, U Mumba started to play with a 5-2 formation. This meant that the youngster had to be used as a substitute whenever required.  

2. Partheek Dahiya – 178 raid points

Matches – 19 | Total Points – 183 | Super 10s – 11 

Partheek Dahiya before the start of the season was expected to be an emerging player and one of the best debutant raiders and the expectations turned out to be perfect with the youngster scoring a total of 183 raid points. He scored the highest raid points in the presence of experience raiders like Chandran Ranjith and Prasanth Kumar Rai. The three matches he missed were due to an injury and overall it was a dream season for the youngster. Ram Mehar Singh has unearthed another bright talent in the Pro Kabaddi League.

1. Narender Kandola – 243 raid points

Matches – 23 | Total Points – 249 | Super 10s – 15

Narender Kandola was awarded the emerging player of season 9 scoring 243 raid points and six tackle points. Tamil Thalaivas lost a gem in Pawan Sehrawat but replaced the raider with another upcoming star Narender which many wouldn’t have expected at the start of the season. Replacing a raider like Pawan Sehrawat in the primary raider’s role that too in his debut season is never an easy job which the youngster succeeded at. If Tamil Thalaivas retain Pawan for the next season then the combo of Pawan-Narender will be a treat to watch.

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