He represented India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the 86 kg weight class in which he won the bronze medal.

Kumar, also known as Pawan Saroha,[4] married Geeta Phogat, an Olympic wrestler, on 20 November 2016.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the young wrestler began his maiden CWG campaign in Glasgow, Scotland with a round of 16 matchup against Steve Hill of New Zealand, winning the match 4-0.

In the semi-finals, Kumar lost out to Tamerlan Tagziev of Canada with the burly Canadian beating him 5-0.

With the latter qualifying for the finals, Kumar was given a chance to compete in the repechage round where he met Zhang Feng of China but ultimately crashed out of the tournament, losing 1-3.