Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Vishal Mane explains why Pardeep Narwal is better than Rahul Chaudhari

Telugu Titans and Patna Pirates were involved in an intriguing battle at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday. At the end of 40 minutes, Pirates emerged as deserved winners (39-25).

But the focus of this match was always going to be on two of the best kabaddi players in the world – Rahul Chaudhari and Pardeep Narwal. Chaudhari managed an impressive seven points on the night but Narwal was in stupendous form, scoring a massive 15 points for Patna.

Patna defender, Vishal Mane roughed up Chaudhari on multiple occasions and was in a unique position to analyse Rahul and Pardeep’s skills. Having played against both the raiders during his time at U Mumba and Bengal Warriors, the right cover believes Pardeep is superior to Rahul.

“Of course I feel Pardeep Narwal is a better player than Rahul because he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He plays in a unique way. Rahul plays with a little pressure while Pardeep uses his mind. He targets the oppositions weakness and attacks in those areas,” Mane explained.

Further elaborating on his comments, Vishal explained that over the years, Pardeep has added to his arsenal of skills and has ensured he isn’t predictable on the mat. We’ve seen recently that Narwal has begun using a previously unseen trick during certain raids.

“The timing of his dupki is simply awesome, but you must have seen that today he initially jumped over the defender before doing the dupki. So, he has added to his game and modified it.

“We always attempted to put pressure especially on Rahul Chaudhari and we succeeded. Nobody has come to terms with the timing of Pardeep’s dubki. Moreover, he varies his strategies and moves according to the opponents and the defenders that are playing in the cover positions.,” Vishal added.

Rahul and Pardeep have different set of skills: Patna Pirates coach Ram Mehar Singh

Patna Pirates coach, Ram Mehar Singh believes it’s too early to say who is the better player currently. The coach was a tad diplomatic in his response.

“You can’t say one is better than the other. Rahul has a different set of skills and Pardeep’s game is different from his. The both of them are in great form and they’re doing their best. When the league reaches the halfway mark, we’ll know who is a better player.”

Asked if the opposition defenders are obsessed with getting Pardeep out, the coach suggested that he isn’t surprised with the attention Pardeep is drawing currently. He was quick to add that Pardeep isn’t the only player the league is obsessed with.

“Yes, he is one of the star players of the league. Everyone always plans against Pardeep’s dubki, they focus a lot on it. But we worked on other aspects. We too mostly focused on Rahul since he is Telugu's biggest player,” he added.