India’s women have won three of the four kabaddi golds, and the team that took the other one is in their group
Eight teams, six days and no second chances. India begin their Asian Games defence in Aichi Prefecture on Monday, with the only side ever to beat them at the Games drawn into the same pool.
Sep 20, 2026
India’s women’s kabaddi team begins its Asian Games title defence against Bangladesh at 12:30 PM IST on Monday at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture. Bangladesh is the easy part. The other two names in India’s group are Japan and Iran, and Iran is the only team that has ever taken this title off them.
Three golds out of four
Women’s kabaddi was added to the Asian Games programme at Guangzhou in 2010 and India won it. They won it again at Incheon in 2014. Then came Jakarta 2018, where they topped their group, beat Chinese Taipei in the semi-final, and lost the final to Iran 27-24. It was the first defeat an Indian women’s kabaddi team had suffered at the Games.
At Hangzhou in 2023 they took it back, and only just. The final against Chinese Taipei finished 26-25. That gold was India’s 100th medal of those Games, which is the sort of detail that gets attached to a result and then repeated forever, though the one-point margin is the part worth remembering here.
Twelve players, one raider with a new medal at home
Pushpa Rana captains the squad. She is joined by Ritu Negi, Sonali Shingate, Sanju Devi, Pooja Kajla, Ritu Sheoran, Jyoti Thakur, Pinki Roy, Manisha Kumari, Bhavna Thakur, Rajrani and Nikita Kumari.
Kajla is the one to watch in the raiding department. She was given the Arjuna Award recently, and she was part of the side that won the Asian Kabaddi Championship in Iran. Negi and Shingate bring the Asian Games experience, which matters in a tournament this short.
There is no room to lose a game
Eight teams are entered in the women’s competition. Pool matches run from Monday to Thursday, the semi-finals are on 25 September, and the gold medal match is on the 26th. That is a six-day tournament with no second chances and no rest days worth the name.
India have the better Asian Games record and the title in hand. Neither counted for much in 2018, when Iran took the final off them by three points, or in 2023, when the gold came down to a single point against Chinese Taipei. Two of the last three finals were decided by margins that a tournament this short can produce out of nowhere.