Pardeep Narwal's decline forces UP Yoddhas to rethink strategy for PKL 11 player auction

The team led by captain ‘Dubki King’ Pardeep Narwal, UP Yoddhas finished second-last on the points table in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 10. However, after the PKL 11 player auction announcement on the 15th and 16th of August, team management and the owner will be looking to buy some of the best in the business to bolster their squad.

Pardeep Narwal, the captain of UP Yoddhas and one of the most fierce raiders in the PKL arena is going through a rough patch in his career. There was a time when he single-handedly propelled Patna Pirates to title victory in PKL season 5. He scored a massive, yet-to-be-broken 369 raid points in that season. 

Also known as ‘Dubki King’ or ‘Record Breaker’ Pardeep Narwal has the most raid points (1690), with a fantastic average of 9.94 raid points per match. However, Pardeep scored just 122 raid points in PKL 10, which is not up to the mark of his standard. Due to his recent dip in form, it seems UP Yoddhas will not retain ‘Dubki King’ for PKL 11. Instead, they will go after Pawan Sehrawat or Maninder Singh in the PKL 11 player auction, if their current team releases them.

Whoever UP Yoddhas chooses to buy at the PKL 11 player auction will have to shoulder the raiding responsibility with star raider Surender Gill. The lanky raider has been the mainstay in the UP squad for a long time now. Gill has been associated with Yoddhas from season 7 and for sure he is going to retain his spot in the team for PKL 11 too. Due to an injury, he played just 10 games in PKL 10 and scored 87 raid points. 

Nitesh Kumar, the defensive stalwart of the team first played for UP Yoddhas in PKL season 5, and since then he has remained loyal to his team. Over the years Nitesh has shown his mettle and in PKL season 6 he scored, yet-to-be-broken 100 tackle points in a single edition. For PKL season 11, it looks like Nitesh will be released and the management will look to buy Fazel Atrachali or some other defenders.

For the PKL season 11 player auction, UP Yoddhas will look to buy some exciting players who can take them to victory. The players UP Yoddhas may target in the upcoming auction are-

1) Pawan Sehrawat (Raider)

2) Fazel Atrachali (Defender)

3) Sagar Rathee (Defender)

4) Sahil Gulia (Defender)

5) Maninder Singh (Raider)

6) Narender Kandola (Raider)

7) Siddharth Desai (Raider)

8) Rann Singh (All Rounder)

9) Vishal Bhardwaj (Defender)

10) Neeraj (Defender)

Notably, the upcoming PKL 11 player auction is going to be an exciting event to watch as every team including UP Yoddhas will look to build a team worthy of winning the PKL title.