Pardeep Narwal on Monday became Pro Kabaddi League or PKL’s most expensive player after the UP Yoddha bought the raider for a whopping Rs 1.65 crore for the upcoming Season 8. “Pardeep continues to re-write history books, with his price tag now quashing that of another star raider Monu Goyat, who was bought by the Haryana Steelers for Rs 1.51 crore in Season 6,” the PKL said in a press release late Monday night. The 24-year-old, who has spent five seasons with the Patna Pirates, is currently the highest raid-point scorer in PKL history. He is also the first to score 900 points in the league’s season 7.

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In Season 3, Narwal scored his first career Super 10 in the Pirates’ 29-25 victory over Puneri Paltan, scoring 11 points on the night. Narwal scored his fifth Super 10 of the season against Puneri Paltan in the semi-final, but missed out on the finals due to an injury.

Narwal’s third season with the Pirates gained him further recognition as he notched up 369 raid points and led the league in every raiding category, with a Super 10 score in 19 off the 26 matches.

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Narwal had not represented even a district-level team before being picked by the Bengaluru Bulls for his PKL debut in 2015. In fact, according to The Indian Express, Narwal had only made a few trips to New Delhi from his home in Rathdhana village near Haryana’s Sonepat, when he first met Bulls’ coach Randhir Singh Sehrawat.

“He spent about two minutes just staring at them, and smiling at them,” Sehrawat told the Express in 2016, recalling the moment Narwal received his first ever pair of kabaddi shoes.

While Narwal made little impact in the 2015 season, he announced his arrival on the big stage soon after with a move to the Patna Pirates, whom he led to three consecutive titles between 2016–17.

Narwal has also won gold in three of the four tournaments while representing the Indian kabaddi team including the 2016 World Cup in Ahmedabad. He also clinched bronze at the 2018 Asian Games.