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The Asian Kabaddi Championships 2017 have dawned upon us and while Iran gears up to host the mega tournament for the second time in four editions from Friday onwards, the ten teams will be itching to step onto the mat and take their shot at the path to clinching the trophy.
While Iran boasts of a team brimming with talented players, India will undoubtedly start as favourites with quality players such as Ajay Thakur, Pardeep Narwal and Surender Nada amongst others set to represent the Indian contingent.
With a strong Iran team set to play at home and a lot more factors coming into play, here are five reasons why India might not clinch the trophy.
#1 No Captain Cool Anup
One of the biggest question marks that floated all around social media was the exclusion of Anup Kumar from the probables list ahead of the Championships and this was for no small reason.
Apart from being an experienced player himself, Anup also led India to a World Cup victory in 2016 and it remains to see how his absence will affect the India setup this time around. While Ajay Thakur is indeed a top-notch raider, his captaincy will certainly come under a strict test.
In season five of the Pro Kabaddi League, Ajay was in-charge of leading the Tamil Thalaivas and unfortunately for him, his team crumbled to the last place in Group A.
With the Indian team boasting of a star-studded line-up, only time will tell as to how much of an influence Ajay will have and if he will be able to fill in the huge void left behind by Anup Kumar.
#2 Home advantage for Iran
In any sport, the importance of crowd support can never be neglected. Similarly, in this tournament, Iran will undoubtedly get the most amount of cheers which will get their adrenaline pumping with every passing moment.
While one cannot undermine India's influence on the sport of Kabaddi which will see them getting a lot of support, home advantage would certainly aid Iran's charge that would only fuel the game of the Iranians and take it to a higher level which would be difficult for the other teams to cope up with.
#3 Stiff competition from Iran
One of the biggest success stories for the Gujarat Fortunegiants in the Pro Kabaddi League was the chemistry between the Iranian corners Abozar Mighani and Fazel Athrachali and come the Championships, the two men will yet again join hands albeit this time for Iran and their tackles, dashes will be hard to evade.
Apart from this, the team also boasts of quality all-rounders Meraj Sheykh, who excelled for Dabang Delhi and Farhad Milagardhan, who showed good skill during his stint with the Titans.
The raiding department will be led by the lanky raider in Abolfazl Maghsoudlou, who will be assisted by the agile Mohsen Maghsoudlou. To make matters better for Iran, all of their men were instrumental in their contributions to their PKL teams which will hold them in good stead and prove to be a major competition to front-runners, India.
They came extremely close to defeating India at the Asian Games in 2014 and even in the World Cup last year, the final was quite evenly contested between the two teams.
#4 Tight schedule and fatigue concerns
Kabaddi is a game that demands a lot from the players both mentally and physically. Although the game is split into two parts of twenty minutes each, each second counts which certainly forces players to bring out their A-game right throughout the contest.
This year, with more teams coming into the fray, the schedule looks like it will absolutely extract a lot from the players with three matches set to be played on one given day.
While India kick-starts its campaign with a game on 24th against Iran, 25th will certainly test the stamina of the players with three matches scheduled in a span of 10 hours with a gap of about three hours from each game.
The first game on 25th would feature India taking on Afghanistan while the next, four hours later will see them clashing against Japan and only three hours later, the most anticipated clash between India and Pakistan will take place.
With a gruelling schedule, it remains to see if the men will be up for the task and how the team strategies will make a difference in the final outcome.
#5 Lack of backup in defence?
The raiding department of the Indian team is well set with the likes of skipper Pardeep Narwal, Rohit Kumar and others in good form to make life difficult for the opposition defenders.
However, the real question remains as to how much of an effect the defence department will have on the day. While Surender Nada is undoubtedly one of the best defenders in the world, his trusted mate Mohit Chhillar has not been in the greatest of form and whether he will slot into the right corner with Sandeep Narwal on the bench will be a point of discussion.
Another problem would be the inexperience in the form of Mahendra Singh Dhaka, whose inclusion was an absolute surprise given that he hardly played in the PKL. In addition to this, Vishal Bharadwaj, who will play cover for Nada is inexperienced when it comes to the international scenario which could be a slight issue on the day.
There is a stark contrast in the number of raiders and defenders travelling to Iran for India and the short numbers at the back might come back to bite them later.
