India's probable team announced for Junior Kabaddi World Championships 2023, many young PKL stars included

India will make its debut in the tournament.

The 2nd Junior World Kabaddi Championships is set to be held in Iran from 26 February to 05 March 2023. The inaugural edition was also held in Iran with the hosts beating Kenya in the finals and claiming the trophy. India missed out on participating in the edition but is set to take part in the upcoming edition and has also announced the 32 members probable.

The team will be led by PKL 9-winning coach Sanjeev Baliyan, Anup Kumar, and Ravindra Shetty. Here is the list of athletes in the probable squad - 

Raiders

Ajay Kumar, Ankit, Mukesh Kannan, Ritik Thakre, Narender, Nitin Singh, Vishal Chahal, Kiran BS, Manu, Jai Bhagwan, Vishal Choudhary, Yash Dhongre, Vinay, Rajbir Singh, Shubham, Parthik Dahiya, Sahil Kumar

Defenders

Ashish, Hardeep, Lovepreet Singh, Ankush, Raju Kumar, Rohit Kumar, Manas Koley, Antil Himmat, Yogesh, Ashish, Sachin, Vijayakant, Abhijeet Malik

All-Rounders

Sagar Kumar, Manjeet

The inaugural edition produced many bright talents from Iran who excelled in the PKL. Mohammedreza Chiyaneh, Reza Mirbhageri, and Amirhossein Bastami were the standout performers. Many youngsters have performed well in PKL 9 ( Narender Kandola, Partheek Dahiya, and Ankush) and shall look to perform on the global stage as well. Narender Kandola broke several records in the recently concluded PKL season with Partheek Dahiya eclipsing experienced Chandran Ranjith and Rakesh Kumar in the primary raider’s position. These two along with Ankush in the defence will be the key.

A total of 14 countries participated in the inaugural edition and the final list of nations in the upcoming championships hasn't been finalized yet. Iraq and Taiwan are one of the few countries to have finalized their squads and will be updated soon.

List of countries that participated in the 2019 edition:

1. Iran

2. Kenya

3. Pakistan

4. Bangladesh

5. Thailand

6. Sri Lanka

7. Chinese Taipei

8. Denmark

9. Iraq

10. Malaysia

11. Azerbaijan

12. Turkmenistan

13. Thailand

14. Denmark