PKL | After slow start this season, Siddharth Desai feels he's back at his best
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Somebody's loss is someone else's gain; This holds true for PKL raider Siddharth Desai and his brother. The latter was denied the opportunity to play in the league, but Siddharth made the most of it when his chance came knocking, and he was selected for U Mumba in his first year.
"Kabaddi was not in my plans earlier, I would have gone on to do a normal job. My elder brother Suraj started playing first. He has played 9 or 10 national championships for Services. He was picked by Dabang Delhi in the 4th season but unfortunately, an injury cut his career short," Siddharth told The Bridge.
So for the second time, the entire family got in front of the TV set, to watch their son play, and obviously, it was an emotional moment. "It was an emotional moment for everyone, including my family and elder brother. As a family, we had reached this moment before but injury had taken it away from us the last time. I am living my brother's dream of playing kabaddi through my career,” Siddharth said.
Siddharth, a native of the Kolhapur district's Chandgad taluka, picked up the sport like any other adolescent in his community. To help support his family, he later enlisted in the military as a player.
In 2014, while still serving in the Army, he noticed kabaddi being demonstrated on television, and that too in a considerably more opulent setting than he was used to from his days spent playing in the dirt. He had a thought: what if he attempted to make kabaddi his profession?
"Kabaddi is very prevalent in our village, we have around 6-7 teams in our tehsil. After PKL started in 2014, I decided to make a career out of it and resigned from the Army. I came back to Pune, joined a local club and kept practising for five years," Siddharth narrated his journey from his village to the Army and back again.
When Siddharth was originally selected, he played for U Mumba, where he concluded the season as the third-best raider with 218 points.
The Telugu Titans superstar said, "I started appearing for Air India in pan-India tournaments and then eventually represented Maharashtra on the national level. I was picked in PKL auctions in my first appearance by U Mumba. When I returned to the auction the next season, Telugu Titans picked me and made me the highest-paid player in PKL history that season."
Siddharth got off to a great start at his new house. In his debut season with Telugu Titans, he scored 217 raid points and quickly won over the audience. "The switch to Telugu Titans was not tough as the CEO and other team members were very supportive. I had a big price tag, but I was comfortable here and it helped me perform well."
In spite of a promising start to the eighth season of PKL, Siddharth Desai was forced to withdraw due to a shoulder injury. When discussing his recovery from the severe injuries, Siddharth said, "I was in good form when I got injured. I went through surgery again. It takes a lot to come back from such injuries as rehab takes up a lot of time."
"The impact of injury is both physical and psychological on a kabaddi player. The injury takes over you, especially in a combat sport like this. The fear was already there in my mind, and I was cautious in the beginning. But it is all gone now and I feel I am back at my best," he added.
Siddharth Desai has finished 600 points in PKL with an amazing strike rate of 67%, showing that he is fully back in form. This season, he has 143 points. The sole bright spot in a miserable season for Telugu Titans has been Siddharth, also known as the Bahubali. After losing 14 straight games, they recently picked up their second victory.
When discussing Season 9 for Telugu Titans, he remarked, "This season has been underwhelming. One of the reasons is multiple injuries to key players. We could not figure out the team combination, which cost us. The players who were supposed to start for us kept getting injured - Abhishek Singh was wounded at the start, and Monu Goyat was still injured."
The Telugu Titans' losing streak didn't stop the home crowd from roaring their support for them throughout the Hyderabad leg at Gachibowli Stadium.
"The fans overwhelmingly supported us, and we are grateful to them. Telugu Titans have such intense support during the games despite losing or winning. It gets tough when you are on a losing streak. We lost 14 matches on a trot before winning the last one, and it feels really good. As a player, I have kept myself motivated, and I will keep churning out such performances," Siddharth concluded.
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