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Pro Kabaddi has completed its half-way mark by finishing its 6th leg out of the total 12 last night in Kolkata. While quite a few star players have continued their fine performances, we have also seen some young talent cementing their places in their respective sides by their fine performances.
It is quite difficult to make a name for yourself, when you have quite a few renowned players in your side. But some players have managed to do it and do it quite well. Here are the top 5 emerging stars of this season
#5 Darshan J. (Right Cover)
The 19-year-old right cover, Darshan J. is playing his debut PKL season with the debutant, Tamil Thalaivas. Despite Tamil's consistent struggles in the season, he has been impressive thus far.
Initially, he wasn’t included in the starting 7, but cemented his place in the side because of his consistency. He has scored 20 tackle points in just 7 games. He is one of the few cover defenders this season to have more successful tackles than failed.
His average of 2.86 tackle points per match is the highest by a right cover defender this season. He has been the leading tackle point scorer of their side in 2 out of their last 3 games and those two games were against the sides led by the raiding stalwarts Rahul Chaudhari and Pardeep Narwal.
#4 Parvesh Bhainswal (Left Cover)
Being a defender, you have to do something special to get noticed while playing alongside the Iranian stalwarts like Fazel Atrachali and Abozar, Parvesh actually did that. After having a forgettable PKL 4 campaign with Jaipur Pink Panthers, the 19-year-old left cover looks completely different this season.
He had just 3 tackle points in 7 games in PKL 4, where he failed in 14 out of his 17 attempted tackles. But, the story is completely different this season, Parvesh has supported the Iranian duo quite well by scoring 21 tackle points in 12 games and with a 50% tackle success rate.
His 21 tackle points are 3rd highest by a left cover defender this season after Jeeva (27) and Mahender (23). He is one of the most impressive young defenders of this season and looks to continue supporting his team throughout the season.
3. Surinder Singh (Right Cover)
It is quite difficult to get noticed while playing alongside the likes of Anup, Kashi, Shabeer and the likes, but Surinder Singh has cemented his place in the U Mumba starting 7. However, he has been the point of attraction for his poor judgement.
It is not easy job for player who came into the side through “New Young Player” program at a price of just 6 lakhs to feature among the top 10 defenders of the season.
Surinder is currently the 6th leading tackle point scorer of this season with 33 tackle points, which is also the highest by a U Mumba defender this season. He has been consistently scoring 3 or more points in every game and a key behind U Mumba sitting at the 2nd place in the points table.
2. Vikas Kandola (Raider)
The 19-year-old, Vikas Kandola has made a name for himself even in presence of the star players like Surender Nada, Mohit Chhillar, Wazir Singh, Surjeet etc. He has been the guiding force in Haryana Steelers raiding department with his stronger-than-steel raiding performances this season. Despite missing last two games due to injury, he is still the leading raid point scorer of Haryana with 44 raid points to his name.
Vikas has not scored a Super 10 yet, but each and every of his performances are nothing less than a Super 10 for Haryana Steelers. He is a true team man for Haryana and delivered in tough situations like last 2-3 minutes and won several games for his team. He will look to make a comeback very soon during his home leg and complete his long pending half century of raid points.
1. Sachin (Raider)
The 18-year-old, Sachin has been the find of this season being one of the top 5 raiders of PKL 5. He was supposed to play a supporting raider role to Sukesh Hegde in start. But, he took over the entire raiding burden of Gujarat on his own, scoring almost 43% of Gujarat overall raid points this season.
Sachin has already scored 77 raid points, which is 5th highest by a player this season. He has also done well in Do-or-Die situation, scoring 22 raid points in DoD raids, which is the joint highest by a raider this season along with Meraj.
He is also the only Gujarat player to have scored a Super 10 so far. His performances are one of the main reasons Gujarat being on top of the Zone A points table with a comfortable margin of 9-points from the 2nd placed U Mumba.
