India have replaced both kabaddi captains who won gold in Hangzhou, and kept both in the squads

India will defend two Asian Games kabaddi golds in Japan next month under two captains who did not hold the job in Hangzhou. Both of the players they replace are still in the squads.

A defender leads the men, three years after he was supposed to

The Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India named its 12-strong men’s and women’s teams on 23 August and settled the captaincy this week. Sunil Kumar takes over from Pawan Sehrawat. Pushpa Rana takes over from Ritu Negi.

Sunil Kumar is a corner defender who sits third on the PKL all-time tackle points list, and he has led three franchises, taking Jaipur Pink Panthers to the title in Season 9. He has also been given this job once before. He was named India captain for the 2023 Asian Kabaddi Championship in Busan, then visa problems held him up and Sehrawat, his deputy, led the side through the opening matches instead.

Sehrawat did captain India at Hangzhou, and his raiding in the closing minutes was what got them past Iran 33-29 in a final that was stopped for the best part of an hour while officials argued over a rule. He keeps his place, listed now as an all-rounder rather than as the man the attack is built around.

Four survivors from the gold-winning twelve

Put the two squads side by side and the turnover is severe. Arjun Deshwal, Sunil Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat and Aslam Inamdar are the only men who were in Hangzhou. Eight places have gone elsewhere, and the two biggest names to miss out are Naveen Kumar and Surjeet Singh, both of whom won gold there. Surjeet is on the Arjuna Award 2025 list and still could not get into the twelve.

Ayan Lohchab leads the intake. He finished PKL Season 12 as the league’s top raider on 316 raid points with 16 Super 10s for Patna Pirates, and took the Raider of the Season award with it. Devank Dalal, who captained Bengal Warriorz through the same season, comes in beside him, with Ashu Malik the fourth raider.

The squad is Ashu Malik, Ayan Lohchab, Devank Dalal and Arjun Deshwal raiding; Sunil Kumar, Jaideep Dahiya, Rahul Sethpal, Gaurav Khatri, Sumit Sangwan and Ankit Jaglan in defence; Sehrawat and Inamdar as the all-rounders.

Pushpa Rana’s promotion was not the one anyone expected

The women’s decision was the bigger surprise. Ritu Negi captained the side that beat Chinese Taipei 26-25 in the Hangzhou final, the medal that took India to 100 at those Games, and she was widely expected to keep the armband. The federation moved Rana up from deputy instead.

Rana is 28, from Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh, a right raider who scores through bonus points and hand touches rather than force, and her work in the closing stages of that one-point final is a large part of why India came home with the title. Four of the twelve women come from Himachal: Rana, Negi, Jyoti Thakur and Bhavna Thakur.

The rest of the squad is Sonali Shingate, Sanju Devi, Pooja Kajla, Ritu Sheoran, Pinki Roy, Manisha Kumari, Rajrani and Nikita Kumari. Sanju Devi was the MVP of the 2025 Women’s Kabaddi World Cup, which India won 35-28 against Chinese Taipei in Dhaka, and Kajla is on the same Arjuna list as Surjeet. Sakshi Sharma and the teenage Tamil Nadu raider Karthika both missed the cut.

Six days in Tokai

Kabaddi runs from 21 to 26 September at the Tokai Citizens Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, inside a Games that opens on 19 September. India’s men start against hosts Japan at 6:00am IST on the opening morning. The women play Bangladesh at 12:30pm IST the same day.

The men’s group at least keeps Iran away until the semi-finals. The women share theirs with them. India’s men have eight golds and one bronze from nine Asian Games tournaments, the bronze from 2018 in Jakarta when Iran knocked them out in the semi-final; the women have three golds and the silver from that same year. Two new captains and eight changes in the men’s twelve, with Iran waiting somewhere in both draws.

Follow India’s kabaddi title defence in Japan