Pro Kabaddi League 2017: Meet Patna Pirates' Pardeep Narwal, the simple man behind complex moves

The match between home side Telugu Titans and the defending champions Patna Pirates was deep into the second half. The Titans held a two-point lead. Their star raider and heartthrob Rahul Chaudhari was just a point away from becoming the first player in Pro Kabaddi history to score 500 raid points. The crowd was buzzing. The atmosphere spine-chilling. One could barely hear a thing.

A slightly weakened Patna Pirates side from their previous seasons, was doing well to stand its ground and remain on the coattails of the Titans. However, the closeness of the contest brought no anxiety to the crowd, who continued with the uproar.

Then, in a flash, everything changed. There was pin-drop silence in the arena. Pardeep Narwal had ventured into the Titans half and come away with three big raid points. He jumped over one, rolled the other over and left the last one for dead with his dupki. Super Raid! The big screen flashed. But more significantly the scoreboard now had Patna Pirates’ in front.

The crowd was stunned, but if there was ever an expression that represented the emotion of shock, it was there to be seen on Rakesh Kumar’s face. One of India’s most celebrated kabaddi players was made to look like a novice by a man who was just beginning to make his name at the big stage. He went in with full force, with total conviction of tackling his man. But Narwal’s dupki wasn’t part of his calculations. The move ended with Kumar on the mat on his knees, not knowing of what had just hit him.

A one-point lead with five minutes to play means nothing in kabaddi. The game was far from over. But for the Titans, who seemed hungover over by Narwal’s dizzy tricks, it was perhaps the case.

The one-point gap became seven as the officials blew for full time. Narwal had ran rings around the Titans lost a match that they were winning for most parts of it. Within no time, the crowd disappeared, the players, albeit in contrasting emotions left the field, but the Titans still seemed sick by the Narwal fever. With 15 raid points on the day, eight better that his Titans’ counterpart Chaudhari, Narwal came, saw and conquered another defence with his series of tricks.

It’s been two years since Narwal has been plying his trade in the PKL, it’s been even more since he started doing the trademark dupki. Yet, he finds different ways of conning defenders with the same old move.

“Nobody has come to terms with the timing of Pardeep’s dupki. Moreover, he varies his strategy according to the opponents and the defenders that are playing in the cover positions. It makes him even harder to predict,” said Vishal Mane, his Pirates’ team-mate who’s been at the receiving end of Narwal’s acrobatics during his time at U Mumba.

When asked what made the complex move so deadly, Narwal’s answer was rather short if not too straight forward. “My coach has trained me very well, that’s why I’m able to perform these tricks.” he said.

The 20-year-old raider has 271 raid points in just 39 matches. He averages seven points per game. To put it in a cricketing context, it’s roughly equivalent of having an average of 70 as a batsman. That would be unreal even for Virat Kohli. But for Narwal, it’s normal, and in fact, very logical. “I am the main raider (of my team) so I get plenty of opportunities to raid. And if you raid a lot you are bound to get lot of points,” he answered.

There’s a dearth of detail when Narwal speaks. His answers are as short as his raids. But unlike the raids, his answers fail to make a point.

But in the lack of insight, lies his greatest strength. His instincts. Narwal has a natural flair to him. When on the kabaddi mat, his mind thinks faster than anyone in the game, his body responds in similar quick time, and all this culminates into a deadly combination that works wonders due to a lack of clutter in his mind. There is no resistance of thought. It’s seamless.

“When I’m going for a raid, I don’t think about what to do and what not to. I just go. Whoever comes in my way or tries to catch me, I attack him. I just trust my instincts, there is no plan,” he explains.

Narwal’s greatest strength is his speed and agility during his retreats. Once he initiates a touch, he is back to the half line in a flash. So the best any team could do after he gets a touch is limit the damage. The more the people try to stop him, the more men the opponent loses.

Pardeep Narwal was going great guns in season three, the campaign that proved to be a breakthrough season for him. But the moment when he truly announced himself was in the semi-final against Puneri Paltan. With a full quota of defenders that included the likes of Manjeet Chillar and Surjeet Narwal, he went in to raid without any fear. He began probing and teasing the defence that was in dire need of points at that stage. They jumped in, stopped him in his tracks. Five defenders pounced on him and pinned him down. Narwal’s body wasn’t even visible with five brawny men piled up on him. For any other raider it was game over. But the youngster saw light in the bleakest of situations, he saw a gap. He stretched a leg out from the heap, and almost miraculously put if across the half-way line. Puneri Paltan were all-out. There was a lot of action that happened in the game thereafter, but the knock-out punch was delivered through Narwal’s outstretched leg.

In an intense semi-final, Narwal had passed the pressure test.

“I know that whenever I play, I play well. As a raider you are bound to score lot of points and also get caught on a few occasions. Hence for me, there is no reason to feel any kind of pressure,” he reasons.

Secret weapons are meant to be used as a surprise. So in order to retain that surprise element, their usage must be planned. But Narwal himself doesn’t know when he is about to unleash his dupki until he actually does it. 

“I don’t go into a raid deciding that I have to use the dupki. I don’t think about that. It happens naturally to me. Whenever anyone attacks me, it just happens and I’m able to do it,” the 20-year-old revealed.

He doesn’t even remember when he first used the dupki. For him it’s as integral to his kabaddi as is any other move.

“It is my own move. I didn’t learn it from anyone else or I didn’t watch anyone do it. Whenever I went for a raid, and whichever side the defender came from, I was able to execute it. I have been doing it since I was about 17-18 years of age. I don’t remember the first time I did it,” the Patna Pirates man pointed out.

Kabaddi requires great strength. Hence, a rich meal and numerous strength-building exercises are mandatory. So kabaddi player can usually be found either on the mat, or in the gym or in the dairy gulping down glasses of milk and cream. But for Narwal none of that makes up his routine.

“I don’t go to any gym. I eat simple home-cooked food. Roti, subzi, milk and a bit of curd is all I need. I don’t eat anything else. I train twice everyday at the academy in my village where my coach Naresh Kumar guides me. That’s what my routine is,” the 20-year-old divulges.

So for Narwal, simplicity is bliss. It brings him personal success, and his team’s, glory. At his age, there won’t be many who’ve won two Pro Kabaddi titles and a World Cup. He’s fast becoming the league’s finest raider, and at 20, he has left himself with very little to conquer.

“My seniors and coaches tell me that my game is fantastic, and all my skills, my dupki are great . But they have also asked me to work on my bonus-scoring ability. That’s the only area in my game that’s not very strong and I have been working on it in the last month,” he said.

If Narwal is able to assimilate bonus points in his game, he will be almost unstoppable. But can he do something which doesn’t come that naturally to him with same ease? Only time will tell. Certainly it will make him a complete raider and perhaps peerless.

But for a natural talent like him, it’s important he incorporates it in his game so that he troubles his brain as less as possible. As in simplicity of thought, lies his genius.