Ajay Thakur

Ajay Thakur
Personal information
Full name Ajay Thakur
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Indian
Citizenship Indian
Born (1986-05-01) 1 May 1986
Dabhota, Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, India
Alma mater Government Post Graduation College,Nalagarh
Occupation DSP, Kabaddi player & Captain
Years active 2007-present
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 76 kg (168 lb)
Sport
Country India
Sport Kabaddi
Position Raider
Kabaddi Pro Kabaddi League
Club Bengaluru Bulls
Puneri Paltan
Tamil Thalaivas
Team India national kabaddi team
Coached by Baskaran Kasinathan, Balwan Singh
Medal record
Representing  India
Asian Games
2014 IncheonTeam
2016 Kabaddi World Cup
Winner2016 AhmadabadTeam
Asian kabaddi Championship 2017
Winner2017 GorganTeam
2018 Dubai Kabaddi Masters
Winner2018 DubaiTeam
2018 Asian Games
2018 JakartaTeam

Ajay Thakur (born 1 May 1986) is a professional Indian international Kabaddi player and current captain of the India national kabaddi team. He was the star player of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup final. India won the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup due to his stunning performance combined with a great team effort. He was also a key player in the Indian kabaddi team that won the Gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games in 2014. Thakur has over 14 years of professional experience in Kabaddi.

During the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup, he was the top raider of the tournament, scoring the most raid points. Ajay won the title of highest overall points scorer with 68 points. His best performance came in the final vs. Iran with a game-winning effort, scoring 12 raid points.

Early life

Ajay Thakur was born in Dabhota, a village in the municipality of Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, to Chottu Ram (Father, was a state level wrestler) and Rajinder Kaur (Mother). he was inspired by his cousin brother, Rakesh who had already represented India in Kabaddi at international level.

Career

Ajay Thakur has been described as one of the best Indian raiders of all time and he is the Thala of Tamil Thalaivas.[1] He represented his employer Air India at the Industrial National Championships.[2] He has also captained India team in 2017 and led them to gold.

Pro Kabaddi League

Seasons 1 and 2

He played for Bengaluru Bulls in the Pro Kabaddi League for the initial 2 seasons. In season 1 he scored a total of 122 raid points of 15 matches with an average of 8.13 raid points per match and with 5 Super 10's, being placed in the 4th place trailing behind the power king Maninder Singh by 8 points.

In season 2 he became the 3rd placed raider with 79 raid points from 13 matches trailing behind raid machine Rahul Chaudhari and Kashling Adake.

Seasons 3 and 4

However, he had signed with Puneri Paltan for the upcoming season starting 30 January 2016. In this season, he could not put up an impressive show with his raiding. But he still supported Deepak Nivas Hooda to reach the semifinals and play with Patna Pirates. But the Paltans went down fighting the Pirates which finally won the final. But the Paltans went past the Bengal Warriors to secure the 3rd Place in PKL season 3.

In season 4 he continued his bad form scoring a total of 63 points from 16 matches. This time the same story as PKL 3 repeated which included going down to Patna Pirates in the semis who won the finals again. But this time it was a different opponent of Telugu Titans whom the Paltans defeated to secure the third place again in PKL 4.

Season 5

This time he was purchased by the franchise of Tamil Thalaivas. This time Thakur did not have a great start but come on with an impressive form in the home leg of Tamil Thalaivas. He scored a total of 213 raid points with 12 Super 10's to his name. He became the best raider of the team and the 3rd best of PKL 5. He tried to uplift Tamil Thalaivas with support of K Prapanjan but could not make the playoffs.

Kabaddi World Cup 2016

He was the no.1 raider with most raid points and Ajay was the overall highest point scorer with 68 points.

India while playing Iran in the Kabaddi World Cup 2016 final, was in a trailing situation. In this situation, came the Thala of Tamil Thalaivas scoring a 4-point raid to take India to the lead. He was also the Man of the Tournament in Kabaddi World Cup 2016.

[3][4]

Playing style

He is an attacking player. He tries to draw out his team when fallen into critical situations. Once he had saved Tamil Thalaivas from going down to Bengal warriors and also had given a match-winning effort against Iran. Due to his height (1.85 m), he has one of the longest reaches (to midline) in the current lot of players.

His signature move is the frog jump once he scores a point.


2. Dabang Delhi K.C. = 2

3. Patna Pirates. = 3

4. Gujarat Fortune Giants = 1

5. Jaipur Pink Panthers. = 1

6. Telugu titans. = 1

7. U Mumba. = 1

8. Bengal Warriors = 1

9. Tamil thaliavas. = 10

Achievements

His awards and achievements include:

References

  1. ↑ Lasrado, Svetlana (21 July 2014). "Bengaluru Bulls gear up for Pro Kabbadi League". The New Indian Express.
  2. ↑ "{title}". Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ajay Thakur". Bengaluru Bulls. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "Kabaddi fever peaks for tonight's finale". Times of India. TNN. 31 August 2014.
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