Top five talking points from India's Asian Games squad selection

Published at :August 28, 2023 at 2:53 PM

Modified at :January 13, 2024 at 6:30 PM

Several major athletes have not made it to the squad for the continental competition.

The 19th edition of the Asian Games is scheduled to take place from 23 September to 08 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The multi-sport event was initially supposed to be held from 10 September 2022 to 25 September 2022, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The competition will have good importance and weightage as the Olympics are just a year away and several sporting events are set to offer Olympic quotas and ranking points. India, so far, has won a total of 672 medals (gold – 155, silver – 201 and ronze – 316) in the history of the Asian Games. At the last edition, India won a record 70 medals, including 16 gold, making it India’s best performance at the Asian Games to-date, surpassing the previous best at the 1951 Asian Games (gold -15, silver-16 and bronze-20)

At the upcoming edition, India shall look to achieve a top-five finish, after ending eighth at the previous edition in 2018. Let’s look at five talking points from India’s Asian Games squad selection.

Squad trimmed as 200-plus athletes dropped

Initially, a total of 850 athletes were recommended by the Indian Olympic Committee (IOC) to for the Asian Games.

On August 25th, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) sanctioned 634 athletes across 38 sporting disciplines, leaving a total of 216 athletes behind, as they failed to make the cut for India’s squad for the Asian Games.

Highest number of participation (Squad size)

A record 634 athletes from India will be competing at the Hangzhou Asian Games; the highest squad size so far, breaking the previous record of 625 athletes across 36 disciplines in 2010.

At the last edition, India had sent a total of 570 athletes across 36 disciplines. Also, there will be two more disciplines in which athletes are set to participate.

The composition of squad is almost the same across both male (320) and female (314).

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Big names dropped

The squad consists of a combination of youth and experience. However, some notable names including Priyanshu Rajwat, Saurabh Chaudhary, Rahi Sarnobat, Fouad Mirza and Deepa Karmakar have been left out.

Indian young sensation Priyanshu Rajawat, who won the Orleans Masters (Super 300) earlier this year and reached the semi-finals of the Australia Open (BWF Super 500) has been left out. The 21-year-old has shown immense promise of becoming the next big star in Indian badminton. But, in the trials conducted by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) in June earlier this year, Priyanshu failed to progress through to the last round, thus making the exit from the squad.

2018 Asian Games gold medalists Saurabh Chaudhary and Rahi Sarnobat are the other notable names to be left out of the squad. The only Indians to win the shooting gold at the last edition of the Asian Games will not be part of the squad this time. Tokyo Olympian Saurabh Chaudhary who was struggling with his form performed well in the selection trials, but it wasn’t enough for him to make it into the squad.

Despite topping the gymnastics trails conducted by Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI), the Ministry have not recommended Deepa Karmakar’s name in the final list citing the reason of less international exposure in the past few years. Back from an injury and doping ban period, Deepa topped the Asian Games trials but in the end did not get the final approval from the Ministry.

2018 Asian Games silver medalist Fouaad Mirza’s exclusion was another shocking one as he failed to participate in any of the EFI-organised selection trials and has also not achieved the Minimum Eligibility Requirements.

Record number of participation in Athletics and Introduction of E Sports

Of the 634 athletes, a record 65 players will be taking part in the track and field events. India has always been strong in Athletics at the Asian level and currently 3-4 athletes are clear favourites to claim the gold medal, which includes Avinash Sable, Jyothi Yarraji, Neeraj Chopra and Tejinder Pal Singh Toor. India won the highest number of medals in Athletics at the last edition in 2018 (20 medals).

On the other hand, E-Sports has been included for the first time at the Asian Games and will increase India’s medal chances.

The nation is sending a total of 15 athletes who will compete in four different games. Last time out, E Sports was included as a demonstration event, but this time it will have medals on offer.

Few sports left out

A lot of new sports have been included this time around with cricket making its return to the Games and chess also being included post the 2010 edition.

However, there are some sports where India won’t be sending its teams – triathlon, taekwondo, men’s 5*5 basketball, men’s handball team and water polo. The reason for the exclusion is the rankings of the team which fall way below the threshold set by the Sports Ministry.

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