Ajay Thakur (born 1 May 1986) is a professional Kabaddi player and the current Captain of Indian National Kabaddi Team.
He has over 14 years of professional career in Kabaddi and is described as one of the best raiders in World Kabaddi. He is coached by Baskaran Kasinathan and Balwan Singh.
Ajay started his Pro-Kabaddi career in the inaugural season in 2014 for Bengaluru Bulls and 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 he helped the Bulls reach the Knockout stage.
- In Season 2 of the Pro-Kabaddi league he became the third placed raider with 79 raid points from 13 matches trailing behind Rahul Chaudhari and Kashling Adake. He helped his team to reach their second consecutive semi-final.
- In Season 3 he was picked up by a new franchise, Puneri Paltan but he could not put up an impressive show with his raiding and earned only 56 points and 64 points in season three and four respectively.
- In the leagues 5th season Ajay Thakur was purchased by the franchise of Tamil Thalaivas where he finished with total points 222, and 213 raid points, his most overwhelming performance that guided the team to the knockout stage.
- In season 6 the Tamil Thalaivas retained Ajay Thakur as the captain and he continues to lead the team in current season 7.
He was the third-highest point scorer in the fifth season and his overall performance made the Indian Kabaddi Board appoint Ajay Thakur as the captain of Indian Kabaddi Team for Asian Kabaddi Championship, where he led Indian team to the title. He was the no.1 raider with most raid points and was also the overall highest point scorer with 68 points in the tournament.
In his overall career he has been awarded Gold Medal in Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Kabaddi (2013), 2007 Asian Indoor Games, 2014 Asian Games, Asian Kabaddi Championship 2017, World Cup 2016 and Bronze medal in Asian Games 2018 (Jakarta, Indonesia).
Ajay Thakur has also been awarded the Padmashri Award in 2019 by the Indian Government for his contribution to the Indian National Kabaddi.
