Indian Kabaddi Team
The Indian national Kabaddi side is by far the most successful national kabaddi side of any country. India have won gold medals in the sport in all the Asian Games till date starting from 1990 in Beijing. India have also won all the World Cups held in the sport which shows the dominance exerted by the team in this sport.
In 2017, India won the Asian Kabaddi Championship led by raider Ajay Thakur.
Past Results
India beat Bangladesh in the gold medal match for both the 1990 and 1994 Asian Games. In the 1998 Asian Games held in Bangkok, the team beat arch rivals Pakistan. The side won their fourth gold medal in a row in Busan, four years later beating Bangladesh once again. In 2006, India beat Pakistan 35-23 to win their fifth gold medal. In the last two occasions, they beat Iran quite convincingly.
India won the inaugural Kabaddi World Cup in 2004 beating Iran by a 55-27 margin. They repeated the feat three years later, beating the Iranians 29-19. When the World Cup resumed again in 2016 after nine-year hiatus, India beat Iran for the third final in a row by 38-29.
India Schedule in Kabaddi Masters League
In the inaugural Kabaddi Masters League being hosted in Dubai, India start their campaign against Pakistan on 22nd June. They will also face Kenya in the group stage. The top two sides from each group make their way to the semi-finals. The final takes place on 30th June 2018.
The other group comprises of Argentina, Iran and South Korea.
Indian Kabaddi Team Captain
During the Incheon Asian Games triumph in 2014, India was led by Rakesh Kumar. The raider Anup Kumar led the side when they won the Kabaddi World Cup in 2016. Pardeep Narwal took the team to glory during the 2017 Asian Kabaddi Championship.
Experienced raider Ajay Thakur has been selected to lead the side during the Kabaddi Masters League in the absence of Anup Kumar. Thakur was retained by his Pro Kabaddi League franchise Tamil Thalaivas earlier in the year for the next season.
Key Players
Pardeep Narwal, Rahul Chaudhuri and Manjeet Chillar are some of the key players of the Indian Kabaddi set up.
Narwal finished as the leading scorer in the last season of Pro Kabaddi League with 369 points, all of them being raid points.
Chaudhuri is the only player to have amassed over 700 points in over all the seasons of the league.
Chillar will be looking to use the tournament to announce his comeback after he had a disappointing 2018 Pro Kabaddi League auction where he was picked up at base price.
