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The 13th edition of the South Asian Games begin in Nepal today, but kabaddi fans will have to wait till 4th December to watch their favourite stars. Five teams -- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal -- will be part of the tournament.
The defending champions, India, had announced their squad on 26th November. Since the likes of Iran and South Korea are not a part of this event, the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) has picked a young team to represent the country. Deepak Niwas Hooda will lead this team while Pawan Sehrawat will be his deputy.
This is a huge promotion for the 23-year-old Pawan as he had recently made his international debut for India. However, the captaincy role is not new for the high flier because he has captained Bengaluru Bulls in Pro Kabaddi League.
Though he is a popular name of the kabaddi world, very few fans may know the following five things about Pawan.
#5 Bengaluru Bulls' best raider in his debut season
Pawan Sehrawat has been the top raider in the Pro Kabaddi League in the last two seasons but he had been the best raider for Bengaluru Bulls in season 3 as well. Bengaluru Bulls had shuffled their entire squad after the second edition of PKL as they released Manjeet Chhillar and Ajay Thakur from the team.
Randhir Singh had built a young group of players for season 3 with veteran Surjeet Narwal being the team's most experienced player. The raid attack of Bengaluru featured Deepak Dahiya, Amit Rathi and Shrikant Tewathia along with Narwal and Sehrawat.
While the fans expected Surjeet to lead the team from the front, his fitness issues denied him from realizing his full potential. But, Pawan stepped up and delivered for his team by scoring 45 raid points in 13 matches. He executed one super raid besides scoring eight tackle points for the Bulls.
#4 He played for Gujarat Fortune Giants in Pro Kabaddi 2017
Before his meteoric rise on the kabaddi mat, Bengaluru Bulls had released Pawan Sehrawat from their squad. Gujarat Fortune Giants snapped him up next and he played for the Ahmedabad-based franchise in season 5. Pawan featured in only 9 games for Gujarat, scoring 9 raid points at an average of 1 raid point/match.
Manpreet Singh, who is known to be a talent scout, used him as a substitute before dropping him from the team. Pawan returned to Bengaluru Bulls in 2018 and he single-handedly dismantled the Fortune Giants in PKL 2018 final.
#3 His idol is Manjeet Chillar
There's a famous saying which goes as follows, 'Work until your idols become your rivals' and stars like Pawan Sehrawat have realized these words. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, the running hand touch specialist had revealed that the Indian all-rounder Manjeet Chhillar is his idol besides mentioning that his attitude has inspired him a lot.
When asked about his idol Pawan said, "Manjeet Chhillar has been my idol for so long now. I have learned from his attitude of taking down opponents single-handedly as my inspiration that has helped me a lot today."
#2 He scored zero Super 10s in his first three Pro Kabaddi seasons
As mentioned ahead, Pawan Sehrawat was not a big name in the kabaddi world before 2018. He played for two franchises in his first three editions and surprisingly, he never scored over 7 points in any match. Sehrawat’s average was also less than 3 raid points/match.
However, the raider worked hard on his skills and now; he scores a Super 10 every second day. In the previous two Pro Kabaddi seasons, Sehrawat has scored 31 Super 10s and his average during the two tournaments was 12.85 raid points/match.
#1 He is a big fan of AB de Villiers and Royal Challengers Bangalore
Apart from kabaddi, Pawan Sehrawat likes the sports of cricket and badminton. While he loves to play badminton more, he is an ardent cricket follower as well. Speaking to Sportskeeda in January 2019, Pawan had revealed that Royal Challengers Bangalore is his favorite IPL team and AB de Villiers is his favorite cricket player.
Giving details of how de Villiers has inspired him, he said, "I follow cricket quite closely. I love the way AB de Villiers plays and his style is an inspiration. He hosts the ability to play shots towards all parts of the ground and clubbed with his match-winning capabilities, he's one of the best in the world."
He also disclosed that he has picked 17 as his jersey number only because of the South African batsman. "Ahead of the third season, I was given a chance to pick my kit number and since I was a big fan of him and continue to follow his game closely, No.17 was my obvious choice. I have followed all his games, and I am a massive fan of the Royal Challengers Bangalore," he added.
