Naveen and Surjeet were dropped for the Asian Games, and now they lead India’s 14 for the Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship
Several uncapped players, no Asian Games gold medallists and no Pakistan: India’s men’s and women’s squads for Ahmedabad, where play starts on 23 October.
Oct 18, 2026
India have named a 14-man squad for the first Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship, and the federation has stuck with the idea it started with: none of the men who won gold at the Asian Games last month are in it. Naveen Kumar, Sachin Tanwar and Surjeet Singh are the names most fans will know, and many of the 14 have yet to play a senior match for India.
The tournament runs from 23 to 31 October at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad. It was originally meant to start on 21 October, and it will be one team short: Pakistan have pulled out rather than travel, so 13 nations will play the men’s event.
The 14
The raiders are Sachin Tanwar, Naveen Kumar, Pankaj Mohite, Aditya Shinde and Shivam Patare. Bharat Hooda and Neeraj Narwal are the all-rounders. The defence is Surjeet Singh, Ajit Pawar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Shubham Shinde, Nitesh Kumar, Yogesh Dahiya and Deepak Sankar.
Three of the 17 players called to the camp at the start of October have missed the cut: the raiders Rakesh Sungroya and Ajit Chouhan, and the defender Deepak Rathee.
Five of the squad bring India experience with them. Naveen, Surjeet, Nitesh, Sachin and Parvesh were all part of the side that won gold at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. Naveen was Pro Kabaddi’s most valuable player in two straight seasons, and Surjeet has more PKL tackle points than any other Indian defender.
Still no Pawan or Arjun
India beat Iran 40-34 in the Asian Games final at Aichi-Nagoya on 26 September. Sunil Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat, Arjun Deshwal and the rest of that group were left out of the camp, and the final squad confirms they are not coming back for this one. The women’s squad has no Asian Games gold medallists either.
Nobody at the federation has said why. Rest is the easy answer, but Naveen, Surjeet, Parvesh, Aditya Shinde, Shubham Shinde and Yogesh Dahiya were all left out of the Asian Games squad in August, and all six are in this one. It reads as a look at the next group as much as a break for the first one. I like it. With Iran not in the Commonwealth, India start as favourites at home whoever plays, so this is a fair place to find out which of the debutants can cope with an India shirt.
The group
The 13 men’s teams are split into a group of seven and a group of six. India are in Group A, alongside Nigeria.
The women’s event has ten teams in two groups of five. India’s squad is Nidhi Sharma, Simran Kamboj, Champa Thakur, Anu Kumari, Ritu Mitharwal, Karthika Ramesh, Suman Sahu, Sakshi, Jyothi, Riya Kumari, Renuka Choudhary, Muskan Sharma, Priya and Sabhai Gadhavi.