PKL 9: UP Yoddhas released Pardeep Narwal, retain four others

The 'Dubki King' was bought by the team last season by making their highest bid.

Ahead of the auction for the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 9, UP Yoddhas have taken an extremely shocking decision. The team has released PKL's biggest star player Pardeep Narwal. The team has retained four players which include captain Nitesh Kumar, Surender Gill, Sumit Sangwan and Ashu Singh. All four of these players impressed everyone with their top-notch performance in the last PKL season.

Pardeep Narwal disappointed his team with his performance in the last season

Pardeep Narwal was bought by UP Yoddhas for an amount of one crore 65 lakhs during the PKL Season 8 auction and he became the most expensive player in PKL history. Although his performance did not rose to the expectations of his team and fans. In the last season, he was able to score only 188 points in 24 matches. But the UP Yoddhas’ team had expected more than 300 points from him.

There were many matches where he had to substitute during the middle of the  match. By the end of the tournament, he did catch his rhythm but failed to display his best form in terms of speed and agility. Since the end of the tournament, there were speculations that Pardeep Narwal would be released by UP Yoddhas.

The four retained players by UP Yoddhas

The retention of four players was shared on the official social handle of UP Yoddha’s team.

Surender Gill:

Surender Gill tops the list among the retained players for PKL Season 9. He was the best raider for UP Yoddha with 189 raid points in the last season. 

Nitesh Kumar:

Captain Nitesh Kumar has also been retained for the upcoming season. He gave his best performance in PKL Season 8 by scoring 57 tackle points from 24 matches and has been the number one right corner defender for UP Yoddha in the last few seasons. 

Sumit Sangwan:

Left corner defender Sumit Sangwan was the most successful defender from the UP Yoddha team in PKL Season 8 and has again been retained by the team. Sumit is currently ranked fifth on the tackle points list with 62 tackle points from 24 matches.

Ashu Singh:

Right cover defender Ashu Singh played an important role in UP Yoddha's success last season as he executed 42 successful tackles in 23 matches and finished 19th on the list of defenders. This is the reason he has been retained by UP Yoddhas who look forward to an unbeatable PKL season ahead.  

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