On Wednesday, UP Yoddha were up against Patna Pirates for the second time in the ongoing season of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League. The organisers and the broadcasters have termed this week’s matches as the rivalry week, so the anticipation from the game was high.
The anticipation was high also because Pardeep Narwal would have been up against his old team. But as it happened, he only played the last three minutes of the match, which saw him bring three raid points.
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On the eve of the match against the Pirates, Yoddhas coach Jasveer Singh had in an interaction with the media hoped that Pardeep would do well against the Pirates.
But on the match day, the Yoddhas came in with a different strategy altogether. Narwal did not start the game in the playing 7. No one, including the commentators, could understand the reason for Pardeep being benched in an important clash against the Pirates.
The Yoddhas had lost their last three games, and one would expect the league’s most successful raider to play in an important clash, but the Yoddha coach had a different point of view.
Jasveer Singh, on being asked why Narwal didn’t start the game, said:
“No, no special reason as such,”We played with two main raiders today and the third raider Aman was included because he can also contribute in the defense. We had a left-right raider combination in Shrikant and Gill. We started with them. Even Shrikant supports the defense.”
Aman, who was playing in place of Narwal, did not impress much as he didn’t get any raid points and got only one tackle point.
Jasveer was also asked about Pardeep’s lack of form in this season of the league
”Speed. He has the strength but he is lacking speed. See we are living in a bio-bubble. We do not have a big ground.
He played well in the initial games, but the numbers came down after that. In the hotel, at the gym, you cannot train like on the ground. So, speed is the reason I feel.”
he replied, as per Sportskeeda.
Pardeep is the league’s highest scoring raider but this season he has only averaged around seven raid points per game. It is Surinder Gill who is currently leading the charge for the Yoddhas. If UP have to get back on the winning track, Narwal needs to play and also perform.
