The Pro Kabaddi Season 6 ended with Bengaluru Bulls claiming their maiden title win against Gujarat Fortune Giants in the final. The season threw up some brilliant performances throughout the season. There were some brilliant raiding performances by various players in the season, we look at the 5 best raiders of PKL 6 those who consistently made decisive impact for their teams and were a terror for opposition defenders. Our list includes a “Dubki King”, a “flying Pawan”, U Mumba’s new sensation, Bengal and Tamil Thalaivas Mr consistents.
Pawan Sehrawat: Pawan Sehrawat has been part of PKL since PKL 3 but really came into prominence in PKL 6 with a string of superb performances ending the season with 271 raid points, the most by a raider in PKL 6 establishing himself as arguably as one of the best raiders of PKL. Pawan destroyed defences of PKL using his blistering speed to effect hand touches and also possesses dubki and jump to escape the clutches of the defenders. The 22-year old’s impact can be gauged by his superlative performance in the final where he scored 22 raid points against a strong Gujarat Fortune Giants defence single handedly wining a maiden title for the Bulls. The right raiders tally of 12 super raids was also the most by a player in PKL 6 further highlighting his destructive impact. Pawan’s efforts helped him win the MVP award of PKL 6.
Pardeep Narwal: Patna Pirates failed to reach the play-offs for the first time in PKL history but “The Dubki King” can still hold his head high after another stupendous campaign. The 22-year old scored 233 raid points at an incredible average of around 11 raid points per match. Pardeep’s hand touches, jumps and dubkis proved too hot to handle for the defences. His efforts meant he was named as the best raider of PKL 6. The left raider passes another landmark in PKL 6 when he overtook Rahul Chaudhari to become the most successful raider in PKL history, he now has 858 raid points to Rahul’s 825. The Patna Pirates captain also has 44 Super 10s, the most by a player in PKL history.
Siddharth Desai: After the auctions U Mumba were expected to struggle in their raiding department with the likes of Rohit Baliyan, Vinod Kumar, Abolfazl Maghsoudou and Darshan Kadian in their PKL careers had proved that they were good enough to be support raiders and not someone who could score Super 10s consistently, it didn’t matter in the end as the tall and lanky Siddharth Desai stepped up wonderfully to lead U Mumba’s raiding department. The Pune native bamboozled defences with his back and running kicks while his power while escaping was unrivalled in PKL leading him to be named as the best debutant of PKL 6. The 24-year old was the biggest factor in U Mumba making the play-offs after 2 seasons and his below par performance in the Qualifier where he managed 7 raid points was the reason in U Mumba’s defeat. However, after scoring 218 raid points in 21 matches including 12 Super 10s and 10 Super Raids 2nd only to Pawan Sehrawat, Siddharth Desai has highlighted himself as one of the stars of PKL.
Ajay Thakur: Tamil Thalaivas endured another campaign to forget but the performance of their Captain Ajay Thakur was a silver lining. The Indian national team captain led from example scoring 203 raid points, the 2nd time in 2 seasons he has crossed more than 200 raid points. While Tamil Thalaivas other raiders struggled Ajay went about his business in a usually cool and composed fashion and Tamil Thalaivas owe their Captain for any little success they had in the campaign. The 32-year old became only the 3rd player to reach 700 points in PKL and is 3rd behind Pardeep Narwal and Rahul Chaudhari.
Maninder Singh: The strongly built raider perhaps does not the get the limelight that the other star raiders like Pardeep Narwal, Rahul Chaudhari, Pawan Sehrawat or an Ajay Thakur get, but the Bengal Warriors raider is as effective if not more than the other star raiders. Maninder scored 206 raid points in just 21 matches which was around 45% of Bengal’s total raid points highlighting just how much Bengal Warriors relied on him. The 28-year old in the process became the quickest to reach 500 raid points a fantastic achievement given the quality of raiders who have passed the landmark. Maninder used his strength and reach to a great effect almost picking up raid points at will helping Bengal Warriors reach the play-offs for the 2nd consecutive season.
