In today’s world of sports, where teams are desperately trying to gain any sort of advantage over the competition, evaluating talent based on just raw numbers simply isn’t good enough. A deeper dive into that raw data is needed and that applies to the sport of Kabaddi as well. We at SportsKPI have done just that and with our years of expertise in the analytics domain in Kabaddi, developed the Net Points per Raid (NPpR) and Net Points per Tackle (NPpT) models.

The models help to better identify the raiders and defenders who have a positive impact when stepping out on the mat. With the 2024 PKL auction not expected to be too far away, here we have a look at who were the players who shone and those who didn’t, as per our models.

Before we start, here’s an example to show what exactly the numbers shown by the model mean.

An NPpR of 0.50 would indicate that if a raider performed 100 raids, then he would generate 50 net positive points for the team. The same applies to NPpT from a defensive standpoint, but with tackles.

Deshwal, Malik, and Singh all cost a ton, but certainly proved to be worth the price. Gill and Narender, meanwhile, were RYP and EYP respectively, so were bargains for their respective franchises. Patna Pirates’ M Sudhakar was another NYP who impressed, as he just missed out on the top five by recording 103 raid points with an NPpR of 0.34.

Bengal Warriors’ Nitin Kumar, meanwhile, was definitely the value pick of the auction. He cost the Warriors Rs. 32.2 lacs and went on to record 169 raid points with an NPpR of 0.34. While Kumar and the others mentioned excelled, there were obviously many who didn’t. Here are the ones on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Meetu is certainly the one who stands out here. Dabang got him for Rs. 93 lacs in the auction and it did not prove to be money well spent. They might have some hard decisions to make moving forward.

As for the rest, it is all Titans and Dabang. While Malik’s presence still ensured that Delhi made the playoffs, Pawan Sehrawat (202 raid points with an NPpR of 0.21) wasn’t able to do the same for Telugu. The Titans finished at the bottom, but I wouldn’t be too hard on Sehrawat for that, as the team in general struggled massively.

With that in mind, let’s now switch our attention to defense. Here are the standouts on that end as per our NPpT model.

Chiyaneh and Sethpal were among the most expensive purchases at the auction and proved to be worth the price tag. Mohammadreza’s teammate Khatri also showed just why the Paltan chose to name him as an Elite Retained Player while Sawant was another youngster on the team to impress.

Sagar, meanwhile, had another outstanding campaign and a big payday is on the horizon for him. One man who did get a big payday in last year’s auction was Fazel Atrachali, who cost the Gujarat Giants Rs 1.6 crores. Atrachali didn’t quite deliver, though, as he had 62 tackle points with an NPpT of just -0.01. He was by no means one of the worst defenders, though.

Ashu Singh is the biggest name here but unlike the raiders, no one in this bottom five went for a ton of money at the auction. Mohit (Dabang) was in the D category while Jaskirat was brought in as an injury replacement. The three others were RYPs and while they might get another shot, the data suggests the other two might not be good enough to get another opportunity.

Featured Pic Credit: PKL