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Iran head coach Gholamreza Mazandarani will be hoping that his team can retain the gold medal they begin their title defence from October 2 at the Asian Games 2023.
In what came as a surprise to the kabaddi fraternity, Iran trumped India in the semi-finals of the 2018 Asian Games and went on to win gold. It was the first time that a team other than India had won gold in kabaddi at the Asian Games in its history.
Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, Gholamreza asserted how they have meticulously planned for each player for the Asian Games. However, he feared any injury, which could completely disrupt the team balance.
"We also made a plan for the best positions for players for the best result," Gholamreza said. "But we should see what happened in the Asian Games. Sometimes, the team's coming very strong but some injury can change everything. Or some bad mistake during the match can change everything."
Gholamreza re-emphasized that the Iranian team's focus will solely be on retaining the gold medal. He lauded the team and the management and assured that they were going into the tournament in the best of forms.
"We will focus on the gold medal again. We have good practice. We have a good team and good management now. We are coming in the best form," said Gholamreza.
"We replaced some players with experienced players" - Gholamreza Mazandarani on revamping Asian Kabaddi Championship team for Asian Games 2023
At the Asian Kabaddi Championship earlier this year, Iran played a team filled with youngsters. Gholamreza Mazandarani was the head coach at the time as well and reasoned that they played a young squad to test the players due to the lack of time to play friendly matches.
"In the Asian Championship, we needed to test some new players because it was their first time with the national team. We didn't have any chance for a friendly match because that time it was not possible for us. So we tried to check the new players in the Asian Championship," Gholamreza said.
After the Asian Kabaddi Championship, Gholamreza revealed that they have retained the players who performed well for Asian Games 2023 and replaced the others with their frontline experienced players to create the optimum squad.
"Some of them played well. Some of them little weak. We replaced some players with experienced players and improved the team for the Asian Games 2023. Now, we have a good team and mixed some experienced players with young players full of energy," divulged Gholamreza.
Iran kabaddi team for Asian Games 2023: Fazel Atrachali, Mohammad Esmail Nabibakhsh, Mohammad Kazem Nasari, Ali Reza Mirzaein, Hamid Nader, Reza Mirbhageri, Mohammad Reza Kaboudrahangi, Amir Mohammad Zafardanesh, Moeen Shafiq, Mohammad Reza Shadlu, Milad Jabbari and Amirhossein Bastami.
