"Practise is what leads to excellence," says Haryana Steelers' rising star Vikash Khandola

"This season, I am enjoying my performance but I want to do better personally and for the team, for which I need to practice more," is one statement that stands out in Vikash Khandola's exclusive with Sportskeeda.

Plying his trade for the Haryana Steelers, a team which made headlines in the auctions with the costliest purchase of Monu Goyat for a sum of ₹1.51 crore, the youngster has consistently picked points with either his famous running hand touches or the ability to pick up bonus points.

Hailing from Jind district in Haryana, it comes as no surprise that kabaddi is in Khandola's blood. The 20-year old burst onto the scene with a stellar show for the same team last season, when he picked up 58 points from 9 games but was unfortunate to miss out on a major chunk of the action owing to a spate of injuries.

In only his second season thus far, Khandola has already stamped his dominance as one of the prospective talents of Indian kabaddi and stands tall in the list of the best raiders in this season of the lucrative league. A rising star with the Steelers, Khandola speaks about his introduction to kabaddi, the meteoric rise in the standards of the sport and more.

"I have been playing kabaddi since my childhood. I was watching many senior players play and since I am from Haryana, the craze of kabaddi is very high. Once I joined SAI for practice, I learned a lot from there as well."

One of the league's shape-shifting features this season has been the fact that a number of raiders have also gone on to contribute in the defensive front with some clinical ankle holds and dives. Khandola believes that it is indeed necessary for a raider to support his defenders.

"I am primarily a raider but in the beginning, I used to play as a cover defender as well. Over time, I started concentrating more on raiding which I enjoy doing on the mat," as he adds, "There is a need to be strong in both departments at the current level. Raiders also need to go in with the ankle holds, thigh holds to ease off the pressure on the defenders in the game."

Yet, for a spot such as kabaddi that did not have a lot of future before the advent of the Pro Kabaddi League, it is natural that some families thought twice before allowing their children to pursue a career in the sport. For Khandola, it was the opposite.

"I have been blessed by my family's full support. At the start, they asked me to focus more on my studies but as I went on to play the junior nationals and then the senior nationals, they asked me to focus on kabaddi to carve out a career for myself."

Standing at close to five feet and eight inches tall, one of Khandola's signature moves is the running hand touch, which has fetched him a number of points in his two seasons with the Steelers. In his own admittance, the youngster loves those moves but sheds light on the effort he has taken to use the move as his primary weapon.

"I practiced a lot to fine-tune those skills through some speed exercises. In the previous season, I was injured and my goal ahead of this season was to be injury-free which I have managed to achieve through more practice and exercises."

Only two seasons old in the Pro Kabaddi League, Khandola has played under two different captains in Surender Nada during the previous season and now under Monu Goyat. Quizzed on the contrasts in their captaincy techniques, the rising star claims that they are no different.

"Captaincy methods are the same. Both of them ask me to play with a free mind, without taking a lot of pressure. The trick is to hone the skills in the practice session to ensure enough preparation before the match"

For most fans or followers of the league, Monu Goyat's jaw-dropping contract was not justified by the star raider's performance on the mat. Khandola was thrust with the responsibility to collect a majority of the points and shed light on Monu's patchy run.

"There was not a lot of pressure since this is a team game and there are up and downs in every player's game. Monu was under the weather in the beginning and he has made a good comeback in the past few games which have guided our team to win a lot more games."

With five Super-10s in 19 games thus far, Khandola currently leads the pack of the raiders in the Steelers unit and when asked about a moment very close to his heart in this season, Khandola is quick to reply.

"The match against Patna when I was made captain is my favorite. In that game, we were all youngsters since even Monu Goyat was not playing. Our team played very well and even I picked up a Super-10 which helped us beat the defending champions. That was a nice feeling for me."

In a season of top moments for the youngster, 20-year old Khandola was on the receiving end of a shower of praises for his super-quick one-point raid against the Telugu Titans in the dying seconds of the game, which piled the pressure on the hosts to pick up a point. Re-living the moment, Khandola laid out the thoughts in his head before the raid.

"There were only 20-30 seconds left in the game and the idea was the score a point as early as possible to pile pressure on them through the Do-or-Die raid, which was also their final raid. The touch point came but the defense was a bit weak which saw Nilesh escaping with a super raid."

On a personal front, Khandola has already plied his trade for the Railways in the 3rd Kabaddi Federation Cup and has made quite a statement with a string of strong shows for his state team back in Haryana. For him though, it is all about the team composition which can win matches.

"We have a very good team in Haryana with Naveen, Parvesh (Pune) and me in the team. In the Railways team, we have some quality players such as Sunil, Parvesh, Rohit Baliyan and some experienced players such as Manjeet Chhillar, Rakesh Kumar, a good combination which can win us matches."

A well-known superstar for his exploits with the Steelers, Khandola was a part of the Indian team that won the Asian Junior Kabaddi Championships in 2016. Yet, does not shy away from stressing on the importance of preparation that can go a long way in improving a player's game.

"Practice is very important to improve any skill. If there is a focus on improving certain facets of the game, then there is nothing to stop you from excelling."

With his team out of contention for a spot in the playoffs, the fact does not deter the youngster from putting his best foot forward to contribute towards the team's cause.

"The idea is to win each of the remaining matches to have a good beginning for the next season. For me, my aim is to give my 100% and lead my team to victory in the remaining games."

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