Narender, Ankush headline India squad for 2nd Junior Kabaddi World Championship 2023

Parteek Dhaiya's omission sparks controversy.

The Indian squad has been announced for the 2023 World Junior Kabaddi Championships set to be held from 26 February to 5 March in Urmia, Iran. This is the second edition of the prestigious event. Iran was crowned the champion of the inaugural edition beating Kenya in 2019. India did not take part in the inaugural edition and this will be their maiden appearance at the U20 Championships. A total of 14 countries took part in 2019 and this time 16 countries have announced their participation. 

List of countries - Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, India, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria, Uganda, Germany, Estonia, and Azerbaijan. 

Squad

Raiders: Narender Kandola, Jai Bhagwan, Manjeet Sharma, Manu Deshwal, and Abhijit Malik

Defenders: Ankush Rathee, Ashish Malik, Sachin, Rohit Kumar, Vijyanth Jaglan, and Yogesh Dahiya

All-Rounders: Sagar Kumar

Reserves: Partheek Dahiya, Vinay Redhu, and Ashish

Narender Kandola along with Ankush Rathee will play a key role in India’s maiden campaign. Both had a stellar run in the recently concluded Pro Kabaddi League with the latter being awarded the best defender of the tournament. Narender Kandola was the crisis man for Tamil Thalaivas and stood in the top 5 raiders list. Interestingly, Parteek Dahiya has been kept under the reserves list.

Manjeet Sharma started PKL 9 on a bright note but lost momentum going deeper into the season. Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, Reza Mirbagheri, and Amirhossein Bastami from Iran were the standout performers in 2019 and got an opportunity to showcase their talent in PKL. With PKL 10 around the corner, it will be the right time for youngsters to prove themselves ahead of the Senior Championships and PKL.