"I never had any interest in kabaddi"- From not knowing about PKL to ruling Pro Kabaddi League, Bhavani Rajput shares his journey (Exclusive)

Bhavani Rajput has been one of the top raiders in the ongoing Pro Kabaddi League tournament. Playing for the UP Yoddhas, Rajput has earned 80 points in 13 matches. He was the hero for the Yoddhas in their victory over the Jaipur Pink Panthers last night as he scored eight points for his team.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Bhavani Rajput opened up on his kabaddi journey. Surprisingly, the tall raider never played kabaddi professionally until college. In fact, he did not have much idea about the Pro Kabaddi League in the tournament's first three seasons.

When asked to share his journey as a kabaddi player, Rajput replied:

"My kabaddi journey started in my college. I never had any interest in kabaddi. In fact, even after three seasons of Pro Kabaddi League, I did not know much about the sport."

"At the college level, they took me in the kabaddi team because of height. So the coach instructed me to join a club because he felt my height can help me succeed in kabaddi. At that time, I had no idea that I will be in the Pro Kabaddi League one day," he added.

Rajput further disclosed that his friends pushed him to try harder in kabaddi, and their combined hard work also helped their team win a local tournament after losing badly at first.

"My friends also forced me to do it. We lost badly that year, but in the next tournament, we worked very hard and won the final. So that was the start of my kabaddi journey," Rajput continued.

Bhavani made his Pro Kabaddi League debut in season eight with the Tamil Thalaivas. He admitted that he was nervous initially but got used to the feeling of the grand stage after he scored a few points.

"Every player feels the nerves when they play in Pro Kabaddi League. It does not matter if they are an experienced player or a new player, but once you score points on the mat, you feel a little relaxed," Rajput said.

Rajput played 21 matches for the Thalaivas in his debut season. He earned 50 points, averaging 2.38 raid points per season. After that, he moved to Jaipur Pink Panthers and won the championship as a part of the Jaipur-based franchise.

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"We can become tabletoppers soon" - Bhavani Rajput expects UP Yoddhas to rise in Pro Kabaddi League points table soon

In the ongoing season, Bhavani Rajput is a part of the UP Yoddhas team. The Yoddhas are currently fourth in the points table with seven wins from 14 matches. While Bhavani admitted that the Yoddhas were not up to the mark in the first few games of PKL 11, he expects his team to be at the top of the points table soon.

"Obviously, when you perform well for the team, you feel good. It has been a season full of ups and downs for us. We have played very close matches, losing by one or two points. Even the match against Puneri Paltan ended in a tie," the UP Yoddhas raider said.

"If you see, in some of our initial games, we lost by one or two points. We made mistakes in the last two minutes, which resulted in our defeat. We could have won at least a couple of those games. Our focus is to maintain the lead now once we are ahead in any contest. We can become tabletoppers soon," Bhavani Rajput continued.

In the end, Bhavani Rajput was asked to assemble his all-time playing seven. He named Anup Kumar as the captain, while his playing seven featured legends like Manjeet Chhillar, Ajay Thakur, Surender Nada, and Mohit Chhillar. Here is the team:

Bhavani Rajput's all-time PKL 7: Manjeet Chhillar, Sunil Malik, Surender Nada, Mohit Chhillar, Pardeep Narwal, Anup Kumar (c), and Ajay Thakur.