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After completing the halfway mark in Sonepat, Pro Kabaddi Season 5 has continued to achieve great heights during the Ranchi leg. While some well-known players have continued their fine performances from the past, we have also seen some surprise shows amongst the under-performers of previous seasons.
It is quite difficult to get a slot in the starting seven of a team when a player has not done well in the previous seasons. However, despite below-par performances before, many got picked up in the PKL 5 auction due to lack of proven talent available in the pool.
Some of them took the chance with both hands and in the new season, they have managed to establish themselves as key players for their respective teams this time around.
Here are the top 5 underrated players of this season:
#5 Deepak Kumar Dahiya
Deepak Dahiya had never been a first-choice starter for Bengaluru Bulls across the four seasons and had been used as a substitute raider on most occasions. However, despite his below-par performances, he got picked up by the debutant franchise from his own state, the Haryana Steelers at the base price of Rs 12 lakhs.
He was used as a substitute in the initial stages of this season, but injury to key raider Vikas and loss of form for Surjeet and Prashanth came as a chance for Deepak Dahiya. He has been mainly used as a do-or-die expert by Haryana andh as established himself as a one of the best in the situation, scoring 29 raid points, which is joint 2nd highest by a raider in PKL 5 along with Ajay Kumar.
Deepak has scored a total of 43 raid points in 10 appearances so far, which is his highest tally in a single PKL season. He scored his first ever Super 10 this season against the Puneri Paltan.
#4 Parvesh Bhainswal
He had a forgettable PKL 4 campaign with the Jaipur Pink Panthers, where he managed to score just three tackle points in seven games. He failed in 14 out of his 17 attempted tackles for Jaipur. He was one of the surprise players at the PKL auction as he got picked up at a huge sum of Rs 25 Lakhs by the Gujarat Fortunegiants.
The 19-year-old left cover looks completely different this season. Parvesh has supported the Iranian duo of Fazel and Abozar quite well by scoring 28 tackle points in 14 games and with a more than a 50% tackle success rate. He has also scored a High 5 in their previous game against U Mumba. Unlike last season, he has more successful tackles (25) than failed tackles (22) this season.
#3 Pawan Kumar Kadian
The 22-year-old raider, Pawan Kumar Kadian has never been a regular feature in last the seasons for U Mumba (Seasons 2 and 3) and Bengaluru Bulls (Season 4), where he scored just 42 raid points in 24 games collectively. Despite such a poor performance, Pawan was picked up by Jaipur Pink Panthers at Rs 13 lakhs, which was just 1 lakh higher than his base price.
He was not expected to feature as a primary raider for Jaipur in the presence of Jasvir and K. Slevamani. But injury to their key players gave him a much-needed chance to prove his mettle for the inaugural champions. He is currently the leading raid point scorer for Jaipur Pink Panthers with 50 raid points to his name, making it his best ever PKL season. He has also scored a Super 10 against his former team U Mumba.
#2 Vishal Bhardwaj
Vishal Bhardwaj executing ankle hold on Ashish Kumar
The 20-year-old left-corner, Vishal Bhardwaj scored just six tackle points in his debut season in PKL 4. Despite featuring in just two games for Telugu Titans, he got picked up once again by them as a new young player. However, he wasn’t expected to start many games in presence of experienced left-corner, Amit Singh Chhillar. But, he did quite well in during training sessions and cemented a place in the Telugu Titans starting 7 since the very first game.
Vishal is currently the leading tackle point scorer of PKL 5 with 53 tackle points to his name and started every game for the Titans. He has also scored four High 5s this season, which is just Surender Nada (5) has more. His average of 3.12 is the fourth highest by a defender in PKL 5.
#1 Monu Goyat
Monu Goyat had a forgettable PKL 4 campaign with Bengal Warriors, where he managed to score just 59 raid points in 13 games. He failed to score a single Super 10 last season and had a below-par average of just 4.54 raid points per game. Despite his performance, Patna included him into their squad as a deputy to Pardeep Narwal after paying a huge sum of Rs 44.5 lakhs.
However, he has been doing far better than a support raider for Patna as he is currently the sixth leading raid point scorer of PKL 5 with 118 raid points to his name. Except Patna, no team in PKL 5 have a secondary raider with more than 85 points. His average of 7.87 raid points per game is the fourth highest by a player this season. Despite being a secondary raider, Monu Goyat has scored six Super 10s this season -- only Pardeep (12) and Rohit Kumar (7) have more this season.
