“Having Pardeep Bhai & Shrikant Bhai On My Side, Helps Me Play Naturally, Without Any Stress” Says UP Yoddha’s Super Raider Surender Gill
25th January, 2022, Bengaluru: UP Yoddha, the GMR Group owned Pro Kabaddi League franchise, has been on a roll over their last 5 games. The team traditionally known for one of the strongest defensive walls this season have also stamped themselves in the top 4 of the league table with an effective raiding unit, with the inclusion of star raider Pardeep Narwal. However surprisingly it’s not Pardeep who has been making news for the Yoddhas but it’s their old horse Surender Gill who has emerged as the shining star as a raider for the team.
Surender Gill, who hails from a small village in Rohtak currently stands 5th in the table of ‘Total Points’ by an individual with a total of 111 points in 12 matches this season. He also has 5 Super Raids in 12 matches, and is placed just behind Maninder Singh who leads the Super raid chart with 7 Super raids. What is more important is that his individual form has played a very critical role in turning around games for the Yoddhas and somewhere these statistics do not justify the magnitude of impact of his performance on the outcomes for UP Yoddha.
Gill kicked off his Kabaddi journey with the academy at Dadri and thereafter he played at All India University level. Being just an average Kabaddi player, Gill in no time transformed himself through his game and is now a well-known Kabaddi star in the country.
“I’m very happy with my performance and it has changed a lot from last year, I’ve worked hard for this season and I’m glad to perform for my team. A large part of my performance is also the result of some rigorous training sessions at our UP Yoddha BK Kabaddi Academy in Meerut before the start of the season” says Gill when asked about his take from his performance so far this season.
Spilling the beans on the secret behind his super raids and transformation this season he says, “I feel no pressure on the mat. Having Pardeep bhai and Srikant bhai by my side helps me to play naturally without any stress and thus I’m able to give my best.”
Talking further about his training schedule and role Surender says, “There are no special training programs for individual players. Every player on our side is treated equally by the coach and we are working under his guidance. We all are like a family and a large part of this happened because of our long pre-season training at our state-of-the-art UP Yoddha BK Kabaddi Academy in Meerut. That really helped us gel well with each other helping us develop an understanding that is helping us tremendously on the mat now. Yes, all of us have specific roles within the team, like this year, he made me train to earn bonus points.”
UP Yoddhas will next play Jaipur Pink Panthers on 27th December, 2022. The game will be telecasted live on StarSports Network and Disney Hotstar from 07:30 p.m. (IST) onwards.