India Kabaddi Squad for Asian Games 2026: The Full 12-Player Men’s and Women’s Lists, Every PKL Franchise Represented and the Big Names Left Out
Quick answer: India named 12-player men’s and women’s kabaddi squads for the Asian Games 2026 on 23 August 2026. The men’s team is led by Pawan Sehrawat, Ayan Lohchab and Devank Dalal. The women’s team includes Ritu Negi and Pushpa Rana. Naveen Kumar is the most significant omission.
India men’s kabaddi squad for Asian Games 2026
Twelve players travel to Aichi-Nagoya. The selection leans heavily on the raiders who dominated the most recent Pro Kabaddi season, rather than on the names that won gold at the previous Games.
| Player | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pawan Sehrawat | Raider / All-rounder | Returning gold medallist |
| Aslam Inamdar | Raider | Returning gold medallist |
| Arjun Deshwal | Raider | Returning gold medallist |
| Sunil Kumar | Defender | Returning gold medallist |
| Ayan Lohchab | Raider | Top raider of the previous PKL season |
| Devank Dalal | Raider | Second-highest raider of the previous PKL season |
| Ashu Malik | Raider | First Asian Games appearance |
| Jaideep Dahiya | Defender | Cover defender |
| Rahul Sethpal | Defender | Corner |
| Sumit Sangwan | Defender | Corner |
| Gaurav Khatri | Defender | Cover |
| Ankit Jaglan | All-rounder | Squad depth |
India women’s kabaddi squad for Asian Games 2026
The women’s squad also carries twelve names, built around the experienced core of Ritu Negi and Pushpa Rana.
| India women’s kabaddi squad | |
|---|---|
| Ritu Negi | Pushpa Rana |
| Sonali Shingate | Sanju Devi |
| Pooja Kajla | Ritu Sheoran |
| Jyoti Thakur | Pinki Roy |
| Manisha Kumari | Bhavna Thakur |
| Raj Rani | Nikita Kumari |
Only four players return from the last gold medal team
This is the headline number and it deserves more attention than it has received. Of the men’s squad that beat Iran 33–29 in the Hangzhou final, only four players return: Arjun Deshwal, Sunil Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat and Aslam Inamdar.
Eight of twelve places have turned over in a single cycle. For a defending champion, that is a substantial rebuild rather than a refresh. It reflects two things happening at once — a genuine generational change in Indian raiding, and a selection philosophy that has weighted recent domestic form more heavily than tournament experience.
Whether that pays off is the central question of India’s campaign. Asian Games knockout kabaddi is a different environment from a league match: single elimination, unfamiliar officiating interpretations, and opponents who have spent months studying video specifically of Indian raiders. Experience has historically counted for a lot in those forty minutes.
Naveen Kumar is the biggest name missing
Naveen Kumar’s omission is the selection story of the announcement. A raider whose consecutive Super 10 streak became one of the defining individual records of the modern league is not travelling to Japan.
The selection logic is not hard to follow. Ayan Lohchab and Devank Dalal finished as the top two raiders of the previous Pro Kabaddi season, and picking on current output rather than reputation is defensible. But it removes a proven big-match raider from a squad that has already lost two-thirds of its gold medal experience.
What the squad tells you about the Season 13 auction
Every player in this men’s squad is an auction asset, and the timing is unusually consequential. With the auction now expected in the second half of October, franchises will be bidding after watching these twelve play competitive international kabaddi.
That is a change from recent cycles. Season 12’s auction took place in May, months before any meaningful match evidence. This time, a strong tournament in Tōkai lands directly in a bidding room. The players with most to gain are the ones without an established price ceiling — Ashu Malik, Devank Dalal and Ayan Lohchab in particular, all of whom are young enough that a continental medal materially changes their valuation.
The players with most to lose are the established names carrying high price expectations. A quiet tournament from a marquee raider gives franchises a reason to bid conservatively, and an injury gives them a reason not to bid at all. Our PKL Season 13 auction tracker follows the retention and bidding picture as it develops.
Squad depth: raiders versus defenders
The men’s twelve breaks down as roughly six raiding options and five specialist defenders, with one all-rounder providing flexibility. That is a raid-heavy balance, and it is a deliberate choice.
The reasoning is sound in group play. Against Chinese Taipei and Japan, India will want to run up score difference, and score difference is the tiebreaker that decides semi-final qualification. Raid-heavy squads generate margin.
The risk arrives in a semi-final against Iran. Iranian kabaddi is built on defensive structure — organised corners, disciplined chain tackles, patient super tackle hunting. Games against Iran are typically low-scoring attritional contests decided by two or three tackle points. In that specific match, the depth of India’s corner defending matters more than the depth of its raiding, and Sumit Sangwan, Rahul Sethpal and Sunil Kumar carry an unusually heavy load.
How this squad connects to the domestic league
Almost every name in the men’s squad is a familiar figure to Pro Kabaddi viewers. Ayan Lohchab’s raiding for Patna Pirates produced the highest raid-point total of the last league season, and Arjun Deshwal has been a title-winning raider at franchise level.
This crossover is the reason the Asian Games matters commercially to Indian kabaddi. International tournaments give domestic stars a national-team platform outside the league window, and that visibility feeds directly back into franchise ticket sales, merchandise and auction economics. The sport’s growth in India has been driven by the league, but its legitimacy as a continental sport is earned at events like this one.
Selection context: how the squad was picked
Squad selection for Indian kabaddi runs through national camps and trials, with form in the domestic league weighted heavily. The visible pattern in this announcement is a preference for players who produced measurable output in the most recent season over players with longer international résumés.
For younger players reading this: the route into a squad like this one runs through state kabaddi, national championships, and then either a New Young Player contract or an auction pick-up at franchise level. There is no direct national-team entry that bypasses the domestic system.
The raiding unit: six attacking options
India’s raiding depth is the strength of this squad, and it is worth looking at how the six attacking options complement each other rather than treating them as interchangeable.
Pawan Sehrawat is the squad’s most decorated attacking name and its most complete all-rounder. His value in a tournament like this is less about raw raid points than about the ability to produce a multi-point raid at a moment when the team is trailing — the single most valuable skill in knockout kabaddi.
Ayan Lohchab arrives on the back of the highest raid-point total of the previous domestic season. That output was accumulated across a long league campaign, and the open question is how it translates to four group matches and a knockout. Volume raiders and knockout raiders are not always the same players.
Devank Dalal finished second in the same raiding standings. Pairing the two leading raiders of a domestic season in one national squad is a strong statement of selection philosophy: recent output over reputation.
Arjun Deshwal is one of the four returning gold medallists and brings title-winning experience at both franchise and national level. In a squad this inexperienced, that matters more than his raid tally.
Aslam Inamdar offers something different — a raider who also contributes defensively and has captained at franchise level. In a compressed six-day tournament, players who can cover two roles reduce substitution pressure.
Ashu Malik is the squad’s most significant untested selection at this level. A strong tournament would transform his standing before the auction.
The defensive unit: where the tournament will be decided
If India meet Iran in a semi-final or final, the match will not be decided by raiding. It will be decided by whether India’s corners can hold a chain under sustained pressure.
Sunil Kumar is the most experienced defender in the squad and one of only four players who won gold at the previous Games. His organisational role — setting the defensive line, calling the chain — is difficult to replace.
Sumit Sangwan and Rahul Sethpal provide corner specialisation. Corner defending is the most physically punishing role on a kabaddi mat, and in a tournament with no rest day across four group matches, rotation between them is likely.
Jaideep Dahiya and Gaurav Khatri cover the cover-defender positions, where the requirement is mobility and chain discipline rather than raw tackling strength.
Ankit Jaglan provides all-round cover, giving the coaching staff a substitution option that does not commit them to either a raiding or defending replacement.
The women’s squad in more detail
India’s women’s squad is built around two experienced leaders in Ritu Negi and Pushpa Rana, with a supporting group that mixes established internationals and newer selections.
The context for this squad is harder than the men’s. India’s women are in Group A alongside Iran, Japan and Bangladesh — the tougher of the two women’s pools, and one containing the reigning silver medallists. With only three group matches and two qualification places, a single defeat could end the campaign before the knockouts.
The India versus Iran fixture on 23 September is effectively a group final. Iran’s women’s programme has improved considerably over the last two cycles, and the two sides have met in high-stakes matches at recent editions.
Comparing this squad to the last gold medal team
Eight of twelve places have changed. To put that in context, most successful national teams in any sport turn over three to five places between major tournament cycles. An eight-place turnover in a defending champion squad is unusual.
Two readings are available, and both are defensible.
The optimistic reading: Indian kabaddi’s talent pipeline is deep enough that the leading raiders of any given domestic season are genuinely national-team standard. Selecting on current form rather than reputation is exactly what a healthy system should do, and it keeps competitive pressure on established players.
The cautious reading: Tournament experience is a real, if unmeasurable, asset in knockout competition. The four returning players will carry a disproportionate share of the leadership burden, and if one of them is injured or has a poor tournament, there is limited experienced cover behind them.
How to follow these players in the domestic league
Most of this squad will be back on domestic mats within weeks of returning from Japan. Ayan Lohchab raids for Patna Pirates. Arjun Deshwal has been a title-winning raider at franchise level. Several defenders in the squad anchor franchise back lines.
The overlap between national squad and league squad is close to total, which is why the international calendar and the domestic calendar cannot be planned independently. It is also why an Asian Games campaign directly shapes what the following league season looks like.
Frequently asked questions
Who is in the India kabaddi squad for Asian Games 2026?
The men’s squad is Pawan Sehrawat, Aslam Inamdar, Ashu Malik, Ayan Lohchab, Devank Dalal, Arjun Deshwal, Sunil Kumar, Jaideep Dahiya, Rahul Sethpal, Sumit Sangwan, Gaurav Khatri and Ankit Jaglan.
Why is Naveen Kumar not playing in the Asian Games 2026?
Naveen Kumar was not selected. The raiding places went to Ayan Lohchab and Devank Dalal, who finished as the top two raiders in the most recent Pro Kabaddi season.
How many players from the last gold medal team are in this squad?
Four: Arjun Deshwal, Sunil Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat and Aslam Inamdar.
Who is the captain of India’s kabaddi team at the Asian Games 2026?
The captaincy had not been publicly confirmed at the time of writing. Pawan Sehrawat and Sunil Kumar are the most experienced candidates in the squad.
How many players are in an Asian Games kabaddi squad?
Twelve per team. Seven players are on the mat at any time, with the remainder available as substitutes.
When was the India kabaddi squad announced?
On 23 August 2026, approximately four weeks before the competition begins.
Are foreign players eligible for India’s Asian Games squad?
No. Asian Games squads are national teams, so only Indian nationals are eligible. Several players in this squad share franchise dressing rooms with Iranian internationals during the domestic season, and will face those same team-mates if India meet Iran in a knockout match.
Do these players return to their franchises straight after the Asian Games?
Not immediately. The Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship follows in October, and franchise pre-season camps only begin once the Season 13 auction concludes in late October.
The full squad announcement was published by Olympics.com.
