Review of Team India in Asian Kabaddi Championship 2023

The Asian Kabaddi Championship is making a comeback as Busan, South Korea prepares to host the Intercontinental event for the first time.

The 2023 edition of the Asian Kabaddi Championship is scheduled to take place after a gap of more than five years since the last Asian Kabaddi Championship, which was held in Iran in 2017.

It is going to be a major treat for Kabaddi fans as the tournament will feature one of world’s best Kabaddi players. The event is slated to get underway from June 27. It will be a 3-day tournament which will last until June 30th. 

All the teams will battle it out for 3 days relentlessly. India will head into the Asian Kabaddi Championship as the reigning champions. In 2017, the Indian contingent bagged a Gold medal after defeating Pakistan in the Final. 

The Men in Blue will be aiming to land their 8th Asian Kabaddi Championship gold medal. It will be fair to say that India are undisputed kings of the Continental cup. In the previous 8 editions, India have become Gold medallists on 7 occasions while Iran is only the second team to win the competition in 2003 at Malaysia. 

As the Indian team prepares to put on a show at Busan, here is a review of the Indian squad vying to write history once again. 

India Squad for the Asian Kabaddi Championship 2023 – Arjun Deshwal, Naveen Kumar, Sachin, Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, Sunil Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Nitin Rawal, Nitesh Kumar, Surjeet Singh, Vishal Bhardwaj, Pawan Sehrawat

Stand-by players: Vijay Malik, Shubham Shinde
Coaches: Ashan Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar
Manager: Bhaskaran Edachery

For a fact, the Indian team is looking absolutely lethal. From Defence to Offense, this Indian team can make life difficult for every other Asian team in the tournament. 

In the raiding department, India have extremely talented players like Arjun Deshwal, Naveen Kumar, Sachin Tanwar, Aslam Inamdar and Pawan Sehrawat. All of them are renowned raiders in the PKL (Pro Kabaddi League) and domestic circuit. 

Except Pawan Sehrawat, all other raiders who are part of Indian team has featured in PKL season 9. Arjun Deshwal, Naveen Kumar, Sachin Tanwar and Aslam Inamdar shares 864 raid points in PKL season 9. 

Main threats for any opposing team will be Arjun Deshwal and Naveen Kumar. Both of them have quick foot movement and they have outstanding game awareness, something we have seen from them in PKL. 

Pawan Sehrawat is also expected to start the raid. India have enough depth in the raiding department and surely they will create a problem for the oppostion defence. 

If we talk about team India’s defence then the omission of Ankush Rathee, PKL 9’s best defender could hurt them. But India do have some mighty defenders in the squad. 

Ankush’s Jaipur Pink Panthers teammate Sunil Kumar who made 62 successful tackles will be alongside season 9’s Most super tackle winning defender Parvesh Bhainswal. 

Vishal Bhardwaj is also a good option and veteran Surjeet Singh can also make an impact if given the chance. 

Overall, team India is looking very strong. An appearance in the Finals is strongly on the cards but everything will be clear in 2 week’s time.