The Indian National Kabaddi Team represents

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in international men's kabaddi competitions. The team is by far the most successful national kabaddi side of any country, winning gold medals at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

in 1990 (the first year the sport was contested), 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014, as well as winning all three

Kabaddi World Cup Kabbadi World Cup may refer to: * Kabaddi World Cup (Standard style), an indoor international competition conducted by the International Kabaddi Federation * Kabaddi World Cup (Circle style) The circle style Kabaddi World Cup, is an internatio ...

events to date. Maninder Singh (kabaddi) is the current captain of the team (declared so in 2022) after Deepak Niwas Hooda (former captain) was suffering from bad form in PKL 9.

History

1990s

Kabaddi was contested at the Asian Games as a competitive (non-exhibition) sport for the first time in 1990. India beat Bangladesh in the gold medal match for both the

1990 Asian Games The 1990 Asian Games also known as the XI Asiad and the 11th Asian Games ( zh, c=第十一届亚洲运动会, p=Dì shíyī jiè yàzhōu yùndònghuì), were held from September 22 to October 7, 1990, in Beijing, China. This was the first Asian Ga ...

and

1994 Asian Games The 1994 Asian Games ( ja, 1994年アジア競技大会, ''Senkyūhyakukyūjūyon-nen Ajia kyōgi taikai''), also known as the XII Asiad and the 12th Asian Games ( ja, 第12回アジア競技大会, Daijūni-kai Ajia kyōgi taikai), were held from ...

. India lost to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in the

1993 South Asian Games The 1993 South Asian Games, officially the 6th South Asian Games, took place from December 20 to December 27, 1993, in Dhaka, Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is ...

gold medal match. In the

1998 Asian Games The 1998 Asian Games (), officially known as the 13th Asian Games and the XIII Asiad, was an Asian multi-sport event celebrated in Bangkok, Thailand from December 6 to 20, 1998, with 377 events in 36 sports and disciplines participated by 6,554 ...

held in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

, the team beat arch rivals Pakistan for the gold medal.

2000s

India beat Bangladesh in the gold medal match of the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games ( ko, 2002년 아시아 경기대회/2002년 아시안 게임, Icheoni-nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheoni-nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the XIV Asian Games ( ko, 제14회 아시아 경기대회/제14회 아시안 � ...

, held in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

. India won the inaugural

in 2004, beating Iran by a 55–27 margin. They repeated the feat three years later, beating the Iranians 29–19. At the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, India beat Pakistan 35–23 to win their fifth gold medal at the tournament.

2010s

In the 2010 and

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...

, India continued to dominate, winning gold on both occasions. When the

resumed again in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

after a nine-year hiatus, India beat Iran for the third final in a row by 38–29. In 2017, India won the Asian Kabaddi Championship led by raider Ajay Thakur by defeating Pakistan in the final by 36–22. India won the 2018 Dubai Kabaddi Masters tournament, beating Iran 44–26 in the final. At the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

, India lost to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

23–24 in the group stages – this was the Indian team's first ever loss in their history at the Asian Games. Despite the loss, India qualified for the semi-finals, but lost 27–18 to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, who went on to win the gold. India won the gold at the

2019 South Asian Games The 2019 South Asian Games, officially the XIII South Asian Games, was a major multi-sport event which was originally slated to be held from 9 to 18 March 2019 in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal. However, the dates were postponed and the event was ...

led by Deepak Niwas Hooda, beating Sri Lanka in the final by 51–18 with raider Naveen Kumar Goyat bagging a Super 10.

2020s

The Indian team have not played in any tournaments since December 2019 due to the

Covid-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Coaching staff

Results and fixtures

Competitive record

Asian Games

World Cup

Asian Kabaddi Championship

Circle World Cup

Circle Asian Cup

Asian Beach Games

Asian Indoor Games

South Asian Games

Dubai Kabaddi Masters

Captains

Current squad

Players

Raju Bhavsar Raju Bhavsar is a former Indian kabaddi player. He has played for national kabaddi team and represented in international tournaments for almost eight years. Career He played for Mumbai Maharashtra. His playing style was all rounder. He was t ...

* Randhir Singh Sehrawat * Ram Mehar Singh * Balwan Singh * Ramesh Kumar * Rakesh Kumar * Anup Kumar * Navneet Gautam * Jasvir Singh * Ajay Thakur * Rahul Chaudhari *

Manjeet Chillar Manjeet Chhillar (born 18 August 1986) is an Indian former professional kabaddi player who currently serves as the assistant coach of Telugu Titans. During his professional career, he played for the Indian national team and won a gold medal at ...

Mohit Chillar Mohit Chhillar (born 13 July 1993) is an Indian kabaddi player who currently plays for Tamil Thalaivas in the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League. He hails from Nizampur, Haryana and has been one of India's best defenders for the past decade. He is a ve ...

References

External links

* {{National sports teams of India Kabaddi National kabaddi teams National kabaddi team