Junior World Kabaddi Championship 2023 Final: India vs Iran live updates

05:00 PM: Hello and welcome to Khel Now’s Live Blog of the Junior Kabaddi World Championship 2023 final match between India and Iran.

India is set to meet reigning champion Iran in the final of the 2nd edition of the Men’s Junior Kabaddi World Championship. 

The 2nd edition of the tournament began on 28th February and will end on 4th March 2023 in Urmia, Iran. The tournament is organised and held in Iran for the second successive time with the host winning the inaugural edition. India after having missed out last time made its strong presence in this edition. Several players who performed well in the inaugural edition got an opportunity to shine at the Pro Kabaddi League (Chiyaneh, Reza Mirbhageri, and Bastami).

India progressed to the finals of the 2nd Junior Kabaddi World Championship. After playing two back-to-back group matches and topping the group, India defeated Asian compatriot Chinese Taipei 54-36 in the quarterfinals. Then India beat Pakistan in the semifinal of the tournament. Nepal and Iraq played the match of the tournament so far with the former beating the latter by a mere point. Iran on the other hand defeated Bangladesh comfortably by 39 points and progressed to the second successive semifinals. Last edition finalist Kenya exited the competition after losing to Pakistan in the quarterfinals.

Indian Squad

Narender Kandola, Jai Bhagwan, Manjeet Sharma, Manu Deshwal, Abhijit Malik, Ankush Rathee, Ashish Malik, Sachin, Rohit Kumar, Vijyanth Jaglan, Yogesh Dahiya, and Sagar Kumar