India’s men’s kabaddi team will enter the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya aiming to defend its gold medal, with captain Sunil Kumar confident about the squad’s preparations ahead of the competition.
Sunil, who was part of India’s gold-medal-winning campaign at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, will lead a 12-member squad in Japan. Arjun Deshwal, Aslam Inamdar and Pawan Sehrawat are the other three players from the 2022 gold-winning team included in the current squad.
The team also features several established Pro Kabaddi League players, including Ashu Malik, Jaideep Dahiya, Devank Dalal and Rahul Sethpal. Ayan Lohchab is among the younger members of the squad.
According to Sunil, the team’s preparation began six to eight months before the Asian Games, allowing the players to work on combinations, tactics, fitness and individual skills.
“The preparation has been very good because our federation and SAI started our camp six to eight months ago. We have planned the team combination and strategy well,” Sunil told SAI Media.
The team trained at SAI Bengaluru before moving to Bellary and later Gandhinagar for its preparation. Sunil said the squad has strength in both raiding and defence but stressed that success will depend on a collective effort.
“You cannot win just by one person’s effort. This time, our raiding and defence departments are both quite strong,” he said. “We have done all the preparation. We have worked on our strategy, team combination, fitness and individual skills. Now we have to execute all of that properly when the competition comes.”
India won the men’s kabaddi gold at Hangzhou 2022 and will look to continue that record in Aichi-Nagoya.
The kabaddi competition will begin on September 21 at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium in Tokai City, Aichi Prefecture. The men’s and women’s finals are scheduled for September 26.