India open Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship against England and Malaysia

India begins its campaign at the inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship on Friday, with the women's team facing Malaysia at 6:45 PM and the men's side taking on England at 8:30 PM at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad.

The nine-day tournament runs from October 23 to 31 and features 23 teams from 13 nations competing in 62 matches, including 39 men's and 23 women's fixtures. Kenya faces Singapore in the opening men's Group B encounter at 11:00 AM.

India squads and schedule

Nidhi Sharma captains India's women's team, while Surjeet Singh leads the men's side. The 14-member men's squad includes vice-captain Naveen Kumar, Sachin Tanwar, Pankaj Mohite, Bharat Hooda, Shubham Shinde and Parvesh Bhainswal.

India's men's national kabaddi team is governed by the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, established in 1972, and is the most successful national kabaddi side in history, having secured gold medals at the Asian Games in nine out of ten editions since 1990. India has won all three Kabaddi World Cup editions in 2004, 2007 and 2016, defeating Iran in each final, and the 2025 Kabaddi World Cup organised by World Kabaddi, defeating England 44-41 in the final. The team has won the Asian Kabaddi Championship eight times across nine men's editions.

Kabaddi is the third most popular sport in India, followed by field hockey and badminton. Cricket, football and kabaddi have a fanbase of 612 million, 305 million and 208 million people, respectively.

Related on Apex Sports News

• Ahmedabad to host inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship from October 23

• India beat Iran in both Asian Games kabaddi finals to retain men's and women's titles

• India to open U-19 T20 World Cup defence against West Indies

Sources

• sportstar.thehindu.com

• prokabaddi.com

• Photo: Sukhjiwan Singh, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)