The India team for Asian Kabaddi Championship was announced last week in what looks like a decent team capable of going deep into the tournament and even winning. The tournament that is slated to be held in Busan will see the best teams from Asia competing for the mega title.
Top players like Pankaj Mohite, Sachin Tanwar, Arjun Deshwal and Naveen Kumar have been included in the team in what looks like a pretty well-rounded squad. While the players selected are certainly deserving of their place in the squad, there have been some eyebrow-raising omissions as well.
The biggest names that have been excluded are Pardeep Narwal, Ankush and Deepak Hooda. Of all these, however, the one name that has been difficult to digest is Maninder Singh.
Singh is a raider who has been winning matches for his teams single-handedly in the past. The star raider has been one of the biggest reasons for the success of Bengal Warriors in the Pro Kabaddi League. His stats speak volumes about the quality that the player brings to the kabaddi court.
In 21 matches that he played in the 9th season of PKL Singh scored a massive 238 raid points for Bengal Warriors. Given his insane record, it came as a huge surprise when his name did not appear on the squad list.
Reports have now emerged that the sole reason for his omission from the squad was his absence from the preparation camp that was set up in Patna. The kabaddi player did not attend the camp for Asian Kabaddi Championship due to personal reasons which in turn made his selection for the games difficult for the selectors to justify.
It is however worth noting that veteran like Pardeep Narwal attended the camp but even then, were not given a place in the squad which suggest that attending the camp wasn’t the only criterion for selection.
As for the tournament, it will be held in the South Korean city of Busan from June 27 to June 30th.
Here’s the Indian squad for Asian Kabaddi Championship:
Raiders: Arjun Deshwal, Naveen Kumar, Sachin Tanwar, Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, and Pawan Sehrawat.
All-rounder: Nitin Rawal.
Defenders: Sunil Kumar, Pravesh Bhainswal, Nitesh Kumar, Surjeet Singh, and Vishal Bhardwaj.
Standby players: Vijay Malik and Shubham Shinde.
