Asian Men's Volleyball Championship 2023: India beat Afghanistan to qualify for playoffs

The Indian men’s Volleyball team will next face China in the playoffs.

The Indian men’s Volleyball team recovered from their loss against Qatar to beat Afghanistan 3-1 and qualify for the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship 2023 playoffs. India had started their campaign with an opening day 0-3 loss against Qatar. But they produced a commanding performance to defeat Afghanistan 25-15, 25-23, 23-24, 25-19 and reach the knockouts stage.

India will now face China in the last 12 stage of the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship.

Watch India vs Afghanistan Match Highlights | Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship 2023

The Indian men’s Volleyball team is scheduled to take on Afghanistan in their final league match at Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship 2023 on Monday. The start to the tournament wasn’t a fruitful one as the blue colts lost to WR 19 Qatar in three sets convincingly. India had a two point lead in the opening set (18-16) but could end up scoring only two points out of the next 11 points.

Similarly in set 2, India had a slender lead (10-9) but lost pace as the match progressed. Looking at both the sets, finishing off sets has been an issue which needs to be addressed against neighbouring Afghanistan side.

Out of the 22 editions, India has taken part in 19 editions including the current one. The tournament was inaugurated in the year 1975 with Japan being the most dominating nation. India in the past decade has managed a best result in 2013 edition, when they finished seventh. Ahead of the Asian Games, this tournament will serve as a pre cursor and help figure the mistakes.

Last time India played Qatar was back in 2021 with the latter handing India a straight sets defeat (3-0) in the same tournament. The winner of the current edition will automatically book a place in the Volleyball World Championships 2025. India’s best finish in the tournament has been a fourth-place finish in 2005 and in the last edition the team finished ninth defeating Bahrain in the ninth-tenth qualification round.

The Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship 2023 is set to commence on August 19 and run until August 26, 2023, in Urmia, Iran. A total of 17 nations will be competing at the 2023 edition of the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship. Iran secured its place in the event as host for the competition. 11 nations namely – Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, Qatar, Pakistan, South Korea, India, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Hong Kong made it based on their previous edition’s performance.

While Afghanistan and Bangladesh (Central Asia), Indonesia and Thailand (Southeast Asia), and Iraq (West Asia) qualified through direct zonal wildcards. Mongolia was also granted entry from the East Asia region, but the nation withdrew from the competition.

Japan is the most accomplished team in the history of the championship, having collected a total of nine titles, four runner-ups, and four third-place finishes. Both South Korea and Iran have earned four trophies each in this continental event. China (3) and Australia (1) are the other nations to have claimed the coveted title in the competition.

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