The Indian men’s kabaddi team began its Asian Games 2026 title defence with a 49-24 victory over hosts Japan on Monday, but captain Sunil Kumar revealed that the defending champions deliberately eased off after establishing a commanding lead.
India were 31-9 ahead at half-time in their Group A opener at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium in Aichi, with Ashu Malik and Devank Dalal among their standout performers.
The eight-time champions extended their advantage to 40-12 shortly after the restart before Japan mounted a stronger challenge in the closing stages.
India eventually won by 25 points but the close score of 18-15 in the second half, something Sunil attributed partly to his side taking their foot off the pedal.
“We weren’t really trying anything new, but it was just so that Japan’s morale wouldn’t drop,” Sunil told Olympics.com.
“So they could get a few points too, since the matches are happening in their country and their fans came to watch them.
“We didn’t want to win by an overly huge margin. That was the reason we eased up a bit.”
India had already done most of the damage by then.
Ashu’s three-point Super Raid helped set the tone as the defending champions controlled the opening exchanges and kept Japan’s raiders quiet.
The Indians inflicted three all outs on the hosts on their way to a 31-9 half-time advantage. Japan managed only five touch points during the opening period and relied on four bonus points to add to their tally.
India made wholesale changes in the second half, replacing five of the seven players who started the match.
Veteran Pawan Sehrawat, Arjun Deshwal and Aslam Inamdar were amongst the players who were brought onto the mat for some match time.
The Japan kabaddi team responded with a more aggressive approach and at one stage reduced India to two players. The hosts also made greater use of the bonus line and quick hand touches to narrow the deficit during a much more competitive second half.
India’s offence had already done the bulk of the damage early, with direct dismissals accounting for 36 of their 49 points, against a Japanese attack that drew more than a third of its total from the bonus line.
India will face the Republic of Korea in their next Group A match at the same venue on Tuesday.
The men’s kabaddi tournament at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games is a 10-team affair with the sides divided into two equal groups.
India have been drawn in Group A alongside Bangladesh, the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and Japan.
Group B features the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nepal, Thailand, Pakistan and Malaysia.
After round-robin matches, the top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals. There will be no bronze medal matches with both losing semi-finalists securing spots on the podium.
India are record eight-time Asian Games kabaddi champions in the men’s event, having secured gold medals in every edition the sport has featured in barring Jakarta 2018 – where Iran took top honours.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/asian-games-2026-kabaddi-men-india-vs-japan-group-a-match-report
