Indian kabaddi player Siddharth Desai has warned that the upcoming Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will witness a new version of himself whenever the season starts.  

"Everyone will see a new Siddharth in Season 8," he asserted in an interview with Hindustan Times.

The 29-year-old raider went on to reveal that he has been acquiring and mastering new skills ahead of PKL Season 8. Even though the upcoming season has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there has been no clarity as to when it will commence, Siddharth has been keeping himself fit.

“I was working out at home and carrying out body-weight training with the children of my village. My brother (Suraj) and I were practising together,�?the Telugu Titans star raider said.

Siddharth also said that he will once again depend on his success mantra of ‘Dream, Believe, Achieve�?and try to protect his mental and physical health in his bid for another solid season with Telugu Titans.

Having made his debut in the PKL Season 6 with U Mumba, Desai had taken the league by storm as he became the first raider to amass 200 points in their first season. He ended Season 6 with 221 points, only behind Pawan Kumar Sehrawat from Bengaluru Bulls and Pardeep Narwal of Patna Pirates.

Following his impressive debut season, Desai became the most expensive player in Season 7 as Telugu Titans secured his services for a staggering �?.45 Crore. The star raider then had another good campaign with the Titans, scoring 200 points.

However, amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a tough two years for kabaddi in India. PKL Season 8 was postponed last year due to rising coronavirus cases in the country and in the interview, Siddharth stressed the need for patience to succeed in kabaddi.

“The journey has been long and tough. I have achieved recognition because of my hard work, patience, and lots of practice. In kabaddi we have to keep evolving and being relevant, from skills to techniques to fitness,�?he said.

Siddharth also spoke about learning from the likes of Rishank Devadiga, Girish Ernak, and Nitin Madane while playing for Maharashtra in the senior nationals. His association with Air India helped him improve as well after he got the opportunity to play with stars like Rahul Chaudhari, Ajay Thakur, and Deepak Niwas Hooda.

Featured photo: Pro Kabaddi

We covered the highest scorers of the first six teams in alphabetical order earlier. Here are the leaders for the remaining six teams.

Patna Pirates �?Pardeep Narwal

Who else but the incomparable Pardeep Narwal leads the way in points scored for the Patna Pirates. The raider is the only player to score over 1000 points for a single team in the Pro Kabaddi league. Pardeep currently has 1160 points in 102 matches for the Patna Pirates. Pardeep has won two MVP awards, two Best Raider awards and three PKL titles with the Pirates.

Puneri Paltan �?Deepak Niwas Hooda

Before joining the Jaipur Pink Panthers in Season 6, Deepak Niwas Hooda spent three seasons with the Puneri Paltan and was the franchise’s marquee star throughout his run with them. Hooda played 61 matches for the Paltan and scored 392 points in 61 matches. The all-rounder is the only player to be leading point-scorer for two different franchises in PKL.

Tamil Thalaivas �?Ajay Thakur

Tamil Thalaivas have been the whipping boys in PKL since their entry into the league in Season 5, but one man who cannot be blamed for their terrible run is skipper Ajay Thakur. The revered raider has scored 484 points in 57 matches for the Thalaivas at an average of 8.49. Rahul Chaudhari, who has spent just one season with the franchise, is the team’s second-highest point scorer with 138. Speaking of Chaudhari..

Telugu Titans �?Rahul Chaudhari

By far the most iconic figure in Telugu Titans�?history, Rahul Chaudhari scored 876 points in 102 matches for the franchise in six seasons. Rahul couldn’t lead the Titans to a PKL title, but his personal stats are remarkable. His tally is the second-most by a player for a single team.

U Mumba �?Anup Kumar

Despite playing just five seasons for the team, the legendary Anup Kumar is still the leading point scorer for U Mumba. Anup scored 546 points in 80 matches for U Mumba and led them to three straight finals from Season 1-3 and winning the title with the team in Season 2. Anup was named the MVP of the maiden PKL campaign.

U.P. Yoddha �?Rishank Devadiga

One of PKL’s finest, Rishank Devadiga is the leading point-scorer for U.P. Yoddha with 351 points in 62 matches for the team. Devadiga was the team’s marquee signing ahead of their debut campaign in Season 5 and has been with the team since.

Feature image courtesy: ProKabaddi.com

Trailing Bengal Warriors by five points and with just two minutes left on the clock, Tamil Thalaivas were in dire need of a big raid to turn the tide against the eventual champions.

After strutting across the mat a couple of times, raider Rahul Chaudhari finally decided to risk it all, luring Left Corner Rinku Narwal by dangling his feet close to the defender. It was an opportunity too good to pass up for the Bengal Warriors ace and he pounced on the raider’s feet to try and trip him.

Chaudhari escaped Rinku’s clutches and was seemingly on his way to picking up multiple points. However, just before he could get across the midline, veteran Cover Jeeva Kumar dashed Chaudhari on to the floor before another defender joined in to pin the raider and earn a point for their side.

It was a rather easy assist for Jeeva, who would have expected a more resolute struggle from Chaudhari, but it wasn’t to be. Resigned, frustrated and beaten, Chaudhari jogged to the bench for the final time in Season 7, and probably the final time in a Tamil Thalaivas jersey, as he sat and observed from the sideline while Bengal Warriors ran down the clock to register a four-point victory, their 14th of the season.

Thus ended a disastrous campaign for the Tamil Thalaivas, who lost coach Edachery Bhaskaran to retirement and then captain Ajay Thakur to injury through the season, also for Rahul Chaudhari, who seems to have lost his spark for well over a couple of years.

The beginning of the slump for Rahul Chaudhari

Make no mistake, Chaudhari remains one of the most recognisable faces in the sport.

His 1000 points, his two Best Raider Awards and his countless heroics for Telugu Titans made him a household name for half the decade. Chaudhari was the face of the Pro Kabaddi league. He earned the moniker of ‘The Poster Boy of Kabaddi�?because he carried himself with a swagger and an arrogance one seldom sees in a kabaddi player.

But all that is seemingly gone. For the past two seasons, Chaudhari has been a below-par raider. Sure, he continues to break records with seemingly every point he scores, but those points are few and far between, and Chaudhari no longer evokes the fear he once did.

In Season 6, Chaudhari scored just 159 raid points, the 12th-highest tally in the league. Before that, the raider had never finished outside the top six. He raided heavily, like he always has, and delivered a few decent performances, but nowhere close to the level that the world had come to expect of Chaudhari.

The following year, Telugu Titans, the team Rahul had spent his entire Pro Kabaddi tenure with, decided to part ways with the superstar, opting to sign Season 6 sensation Siddharth Desai for a whopping 1.45 crores instead. Chaudhari, though, was still a man in demand.

Rahul Chaudhari's inglorious capitulation

Teams bid aggressively for the raider and it was Tamil Thalaivas who emerged victorious in his pursuit, signing him for 94 lakhs and pairing him with veteran superstar Ajay Thakur, a dream duo for many.

As luck would have it, Chaudhari made his Tamil Thalaivas debut against his former side and outshone Desai by scoring a Super 10 and leading his new side to 39-26 victory. Maybe that’s what he needed; a change in scenery to get rid of the monotonous job of carrying Telugu Titans and being inevitably disappointed when their luck ran out.

• Rahul Chaudhari’s best performances in the Pro Kabaddi League

At Tamil Thalaivas, he had Manjeet Chhillar, Mohit Chhillar and Ran Singh to man the defence, and in the attack, he had the legendary Ajay Thakur alongside him. Maybe that would spur him on to be the raider he once was. However, things went south quickly for Chaudhari and the Chennai-based outfit.

Chaudhari and Thakur struggled in the subsequent matches and the defence couldn’t hold up either. Bhaskaran resigned soon after as the Thalaivas' prolonged struggles continued to drag. New coach Udaya Kumar let rookie Ajith takeover the lead raider’s role alongside Chaudhari in Thakur’s absence and the youngster was perhaps the only silver lining in an otherwise dumpster fire of a season for the Thalaivas.

The results improved slightly but there was no end in sight for Rahul’s tumultuous season. Often on the bench, frustrated and with a look of helplessness on his face, the raider finished the season with just 130 points. He averaged a mere 5.91 raid points per game, had a strike rate of just 40, scored just two Super 10s and managed zero Super Tackles, all career lows.

End of the road for Rahul Chaudhari

Retaining Chaudhari will cost the Thalaivas a fortune and it’s likely they’ll part ways with the veteran raider for the upcoming season. Once revered and idolised, Chaudhari’s form had been slumping for a couple of seasons before finally capitulating in Season 7.

He no longer has the explosiveness to trouble defenders, nor the strength and speed to bulldoze his way through defenders. It’s a difficult admission, but Chaudhari’s days as an elite raider are behind him. His experience and marketability could be a valuable asset for any team that wishes to sign him, however, his days as a world-class raider that could lead his side to victory are long gone.

Images courtesy: ProKabaddi.com

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SportsAdda.

The inception of the Pro Kabaddi league in 2014 brought a plethora of previously unearthed athletic sensations to the fore, and among them, the player that shone the brightest was the Uttar Pradesh-native Rahul Chaudhari.

A bonafide superstar since his debut in the league, Chaudhari made the kabaddi stage his own, by bringing his swagger and a confident demeanour. It was those qualities, along with his incomparable playing ability, that made him stand out from the rest of the pack and earned him monikers like the ‘Poster Boy of kabaddi�?and more recently, ‘Showman�?

With over 950 raids points through seven seasons of the Pro Kabaddi league for the Telugu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas, Chaudhari has often delivered awe-inspiring performances and below, we take a look at his best so far:

Mauling U Mumba

U Mumba’s team from Season 1 through 3 was quite easily the most stacked roster in Pro Kabaddi history. An offence led by Anup Kumar that also featured Shabeer Bappu and Rishank Devadiga and a heavyweight defence consisting of the Indian kabaddi team’s starting Corner defenders at the time, Surender Nada and Mohit Chhillar with Pro Kabaddi stalwarts Vishal Mane and Jeeva Kumar manning the Cover positions, it usually took a miracle to beat this side. So Chaudhari provided one.

The raider scored 23 raid points in just 22 raid attempts, guiding Telugu Titans to a thrilling 44-43 victory over the eventual runners-up. Chaudhari went on a rampaging run of 18 straight successful raids and was tackled only twice in the contest. That defeat was one of only three that U Mumba suffered in Season 1 and it took a performance for the ages from the Showman to make it happen.

Chaudhari carries Telugu Titans

After finishing third in Season 2, Telugu Titans found themselves in the dreaded 3/4th playoff match yet again in Season 4, this time against Puneri Paltan after they lost their semifinal clash against Jaipur Pink Panthers. While both teams would have been massively disappointed about failing to reach the final, finishing third would still have been a decent consolation for their efforts over the season. And Chaudhari played like he wanted just that.

The Telugu Titans superstar attempted 29 raids and notched up 18 raid points while giving away just two tackle points in the contest. Chaudhari scored all but three of his team’s raid points and the lack of support reflected in the final score, as Telugu Titans succumbed to a 35-40 defeat to finish fourth. Chaudhari, however, would be rewarded for his stellar performances that season, as he picked up his second Best Raider award, adding to the one he won in the inaugural Pro Kabaddi campaign.

Upstaging Pardeep

Chaudhari and Pardeep Narwal are the only two players in Pro Kabaddi history with over 1000 points. While Chaudhari was the trendsetter for scoring milestones, being the first to reach 200, 300, 400 till 800 points, Pardeep upstaged the Showman by becoming the first player to reach 900 and 1000 points. Pardeep is also the only raider with 1000 raid points while Chaudhari sits in the second spot in 955.

Pardeep has seemingly always had the better of Chaudhari, but in Match 40 of Season 6, Chaudhari rolled into the Patliputra Indoor Stadium, the home of the Patna Pirates, and rolled over Pardeep and his team with a brilliant performance.

In just 23 raid attempts, Chaudhari scored 18 raid points, while succumbing to just three tackle attempts and inspired his side to a 53-32 humbling of the home side. What made the performance and the victory sweeter was that the Telugu Titans defence managed to hold Pardeep to just four raid points, one of his worst performances of the season.

On a mission

A lot did not go right for Telugu Titans in Season 5, but when it did, it was usually down to Chaudhari’s excellence on the mat.

Against Jaipur Pink Panthers in Match 96, Chaudhari was determined to end his team’s three-game winless streak and did just that by scoring 17 raid points in 24 attempts on the night. Chaudhari was responsible for 71 percent of his team’s raid points on the night and was tackled just once, in a stellar display.

Feature image courtesy: Twitter / @TamilThalaivas

Just as in football, the forwards are entrusted to score goals, similarly, in Kabaddi, the raiders fight hard to garner points for their respective teams and lead them to victory. In the past six seasons, the raiders have come up with interesting moves to get the better of their opponents.

Ranging from toe-touch to back-kick to ‘dubki�?to scorpions kick, the raiders have been quick and agile over anything else. Here we take a look at the raiders who have garnered the maximum raid points over the years ahead of Pro Kabaddi 2019.

Pardeep Narwal (858 raid points)

Belonging from the state of Haryana, the ‘Dubki King�?made his debut with Bengaluru Bulls before going on to join the Patna Pirates in the third season, where he cemented his place in their frontline for the next five years. Pardeep has scored a humongous total of 865 raid points from just 85 matches in his PKL career.

He was adjudged the league’s ‘Most Valuable Player�?in two consecutive seasons (season four and five). Alongside all this, the raider also holds the record for the most points scored in a single season (369), the highest points in a single game (34) and the most points in a single raid (8). He is one of the most consistent performers in PKL who is growing stronger with every passing day.

Rahul Chaudhari (825 raid points)

The ‘Poster Boy�?of Indian Kabaddi has deservedly earned the title of the ‘Raid Machine�? A part of the Telugu Titans setup since its inception, it’s the first time that he will turn up for another team in PKL - Tamil Thalaivas.

A top-notch raider, he possesses a unique knack of attacking from both sides �?right and left, which adds further dimensional to his game. In 100 PKL matches, Chaudhari has scored 825 raid points so far and is giving Pardeep a tough competition in clinching the top spot.

Deepak Niwas Hooda (710 raid points)

The Jaipur Pink Panthers�?charismatic leader has already tasted huge success at the international level when he lifted the Kabaddi World Cup back in 2016. His story in PKL, however, is not that different.

Hooda started his PKL career with Telegu Titans in 2014, then shifted to Puneri Paltans in 2016 before joining the Jaipur bandwagon from season six. In this season, he became the He was the most successful all-rounder as well with 208 points to his name. With his athletic build, Hooda’s ability to snatch crucial points for his team never goes in vain, especially during do-or-die raids. He has garnered a total of 785 points from 103 PKL matches.

Ajay Thakur (732 raid points)

The Indian national Kabaddi team captain remains one of the most effective raiders in the competition. And his ‘never-say-die�?attitude has given us some memorable comebacks over the years. His signature frog jump is his most lethal weapon and a defender’s nightmare.

Having played for Bengaluru Bulls and Puneri Paltan before, Thakur was the captain of Tamil Thalaivas since its inception in 2017. In a total of 102 matches played so far in PKL till season six, Thakur has scored 732 raid points that includes 21 super raids and 28 Super 10s.

Rohit Kumar (526 raid points)

The Bengaluru Bulls captain has gradually become an epitome of inspiration for his teammates with his performance on the mat and his leadership qualities in crunch situations. A great raider, his ability to make quick decisions has saved Bengaluru on multiple occasions in the past.

He began his PKL career as a part of the Patna Pirates unit, before becoming a part of the Bulls whom he led to their first-ever PKL title in 2018. In 72 matches over the seasons, Rohit has 526 raid points to his name. He is also the first player ever to score 30 points in a PKL match, a feat he achieved in season five.

Feature image courtesy: Star Sports & PKL

Over the years, Pro Kabaddi has seen extraordinary raiders pull off incredible raids, going on to single-handedly win matches for their team. Speed, athletism, strength and quick thinking are the essentials of any player who want to make the raiding department their own.

From swift toe touches to powerful frog jumps to crafty hand touches, a raider has to have every arsenal in his bag to get the better of the opponent. In such scenarios, overcoming the 10-point barrier in a single match is quite an impossible task, but some of the most flamboyant raiders in the PKL circuit makes it look like a mere formality.

Here we take a look at the top five players who have garnered the most number of Super 10’s in PKL history ahead of season seven.

Pardeep Narwal (44)

Patna Pirates crown jewel, Pardeep Narwal has risen to greatness courtesy of his unique ability to outsmart opposition defences. He became the first player in league history to acquire 1000 raid points in the ongoing seventh season adding another feather to his cap. Over his illustrious career in PKL, Pardeep has etched his name in history books. With his signature ‘Dubki�? he has successfully completed 44 Super 10s in a mere 85 before entering season seven.

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The Record-Breaker Pardeep Narwal adds another feather in his - becoming the first player to score 1000 points in #VIVOProKabaddi!

Keep watching the #CHEvPAT action, LIVE on Star Sports and Hotstar. #IsseToughKuchNahi pic.twitter.com/zzTz572Utw

�?ProKabaddi (@ProKabaddi) September 9, 2019

However, his most notable accomplishment came back in the fifth season when he scored 369 raid points and was almost 150 points clear of the second most successful raider of the season.  

Rahul Chaudhari (36)

After a long and successful stint with Telugu Titans, Rahul Chaudhari turned his boat to the shores of Tamil Thalaivas for the seventh season. He is one of the swiftest raiders in the game leading the charge with his ‘running hand touch�?move, leaving no time for the opponent player to react.

The ‘Raid Machine�?completed eight Super 10s in his fifth season equalling his record from the first season in PKL. Till the start of the seventh season, Rahul had 36 Super 10s to his name with that number expected to significantly improve in the ongoing season.

Ajay Thakur (28)

A true leader, Ajay Thakur was the driving force in India’s triumph at the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. Playing for the Tamil Thalaivas for a third consecutive season, Ajay is known for his ‘Frog Jump�?leaving the defenders in their trail. With his height playing a significant role in his success over the years, the 6ft 1inch also scored a Super 10 in the final of the 2016 World Cup.

Another testament to the legend this Thalaiva is!

Congratulations to Ajay Thakur on being conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award. pic.twitter.com/ReNmr5ELBc

�?ProKabaddi (@ProKabaddi) August 29, 2019

With 28 PKL Super 10s to his name, Ajay Thakur is going toe-to-toe with some of the best in the sport. 

Deepak Niwas Hooda (24)

Deepak Niwas Hooda is one of the most versatile all-rounders in the game presently. His most successful campaign was season six where he displayed immense promise as he racked up 208 points to his name.

Deepak has played a pivotal role in saving his teams from tricky situations over the past, with his pace and sturdy defensive abilities being his shield. Till season six, Deepak had 24 Super 10s to his name alongside four High 5s - a remarkable feat.

Maninder Singh (23)

The witty and calculative raider from Bengal Warriors, Maninder Singh has registered 23 Super 10s in only 59 PKL appearances, ahead of season seven. He played an instrumental role in the inaugural season of the league when he took Jaipur Pink Panthers to glory.

Earning 206 raid points for Bengal in season six, Maninder has earned the trust of his coaches and the team owners, the reason he has been made the captain the ongoing season. His role in India’s victory at the Asian Kabaddi Championship in 2017 was also nothing short of exemplary. 

Feature image courtesy: Star Sports & PKL