Top five new players who can be picked in Indian Kabaddi squad

These few players have performed exceptionally in the last few seasons.

The Indian Kabaddi team has not played a single match since 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic playing a major role. The players missed the entire 2020 season but the Pro Kabaddi League was brought in 2021 with season 8 completed successfully. Season 9 too got completed successfully in December 2022 and many emerging talents were produced in these two seasons. In this article let us discuss the list of players who can be called up for the National team selection. The form of season 8 and season 9 are taken into consideration.

Sagar Rathee

Sagar Rathee of Tamil Thalaivas was one of their best defenders in seasons 8 and 9 of the Pro Kabaddi League. In his debut season, he stood second in the tackle points table. He scored close to 50 points in season 9 after missing out on the last part of the league stages. He has been a consistent performer throughout the two seasons and has one of the best ankle hold among the corner defenders. 

Season 8 - 82 tackle points | Season 9 - 52 tackle points

Jaideep Dahiya

Jaideep of Haryana Steelers is had a good season defending in the cover position. He along with Mohit Nandal formed a good combo in season 9. There aren't many cover defenders who have scored points at a good rate like Jaideep excluding Sunil Kumar. Jaideep has scored 50-plus points in seasons 8 and 9 and shall be one of the players on the selector's radar.

Season 8 - 66 tackle points | Season 9 - 57 tackle points

Aslam Inamdar

Puneri Paltan has been producing a good number of youngsters through PKL in the past few seasons and Aslam Inamdar is one among the lot. Aslam in his debut season donned the primary raider's position and scored close to 200 points. In season 9 he continued from where he left scoring four successive super 10s at the start of the league phase. He did a decent job in the defensive section as well as scoring 32 tackle points combining seasons 8 and 9. If groomed well he can turn out to be a good all-rounder.

Season 8 - 169 Raid Points and 20 tackle points | Season 9 - 138 Raid Points and 12 tackle points.

Bharat Hooda

Bharat Hooda turned out to be the star of season 9 scoring close to 300 raid points in just his second season. He was a secondary raider in season 8 helping Pawan Sehrawat in the raiding department. This season upgraded himself to the primary raider role ahead of Vikash Kandola in season 9. The tall lanky raider uses his height to good effect scoring bonus points.

Season 8 - 115 raid points | Season 9 - 279 raid points

Arjun Deshwal

The 23-year-old has scored more than 200 raid points in seasons 8 and 9 and is all set to make his Indian debut soon. More than season 8 it was the ninth season which was more challenging with no support from the secondary and tertiary raiders. He single-handedly took care of the raiding department scoring 296 raid points. He could have become the fourth raider after Pardeep Narwal, Pawan Sehrawat, and Naveen Kumar to cross the 300 points mark in a single season.

Season 8 - 267 raid points | Season 9 - 296 raid points