Top 3 Indian Defenders at the 2026 Asian Games

India won a ninth men’s kabaddi gold at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, beating Iran 40-34 in the final on 26 September without losing a match all tournament. The raiders got most of the attention, but the mat was handed back to them again and again by a defensive unit that had never played an Asian Games before.

Jaideep Dahiya, Rahul Sethpal and Sumit Sangwan finished as the top three Indian defenders at the 2026 Asian Games. All figures here are tournament totals for the Indian men’s team.

Defender	Tackle points	Raid points	Total
Jaideep Dahiya	17	0	17
Rahul Sethpal	16	0	16
Sumit Sangwan	15	0	15

1. Jaideep Dahiya

Jaideep led India’s defence with 17 tackle points on his Asian Games debut. He plays in the cover position, which means he is the man expected to read a raider early and either hold him up or drag him down before he can get back to the midline. He did that more often than anyone else in the squad.

His 17 points came across six matches, and they came in the games that mattered. India conceded only 21 points to Chinese Taipei, 24 to Japan and 25 to Bangladesh in the group stage, and that sort of control starts with the cover defenders winning one-on-ones rather than waiting for the corners to clean up.

Jaideep arrived in Japan as the second-highest tackle point scorer of Pro Kabaddi Season 12 with 68. Carrying that form straight into a first international tournament, and finishing as India’s best defender in a gold medal campaign, makes him the obvious long-term answer at cover.

2. Rahul Sethpal

Rahul finished one behind Jaideep on 16 tackle points, also on debut. He is a corner defender, the position with the least margin for error in kabaddi, because a corner who misses usually gives up the point and his own place on the mat at the same time.

Rahul was part of the pairing that kept India’s right corner shut for most of the tournament. The 66-28 semi-final win over Thailand and the 63-31 group win over the Republic of Korea were the clearest examples, with Iranian and Korean raiders repeatedly turned back without a bonus.

Sixteen tackle points from a first Asian Games is a serious return for a corner, and it came in a side where the defensive load was shared rather than handed to one man.

3. Sumit Sangwan

Sumit made up the third of India’s leading defenders with 15 tackle points, again as an Asian Games debutant and again from the corner. The gap between the top three is tiny, two points from first to third, and that is the point of this unit.

His value showed most in the final. India trailed Iran 17-18 at half-time, and the second-half swing that took the match to 40-34 needed the defence to stop Iran scoring as much as it needed the raiders to attack. Sumit was one of the men doing that work.

For a corner defender playing his first major international tournament against the strongest raiding nations in Asia, finishing within touching distance of the team’s leading defender is a strong first marker.

A defence built from scratch

The striking thing about India’s top three defenders is that all of them were Asian Games debutants. Eight of the 12-man squad had never played the Games before, and the entire defensive core was new. India went into Aichi-Nagoya with an untested unit and did not concede more than 34 points in any match.

That matters beyond one tournament. India’s defensive bench is usually the hardest part of the side to rebuild, and this one arrived ready.

India’s campaign at the 20th Asian Games

India were unbeaten through the tournament. They beat Chinese Taipei 37-21, Japan 49-24, Bangladesh 48-25 and the Republic of Korea 63-31 in Group A, then beat Thailand 66-28 in the semi-final before the 40-34 win over Iran in the gold medal match.

It was India’s ninth men’s kabaddi gold at the Asian Games, and the women’s team won gold as well, giving India a clean sweep in kabaddi in Aichi-Nagoya.

Sunil Kumar’s leadership

Captain Sunil Kumar is a cover defender himself, and he led a side with eight Asian Games debutants in it. He added five tackle points and a raid point, but his bigger contribution was the structure around the three men above him on the tackle chart.

Sunil is the ninth man to captain India in men’s kabaddi at the Asian Games, and he joins the long list of Indian captains who have finished the job with gold.

India’s full points chart at the 2026 Asian Games

Here is how every member of the Indian men’s squad finished, with raid points and tackle points across the tournament.

Player	Raid points	Tackle points	Total points
Devank Dalal	59	1	60
Arjun Deshwal	35	0	35
Ayan Lohchab	35	0	35
Ashu Malik	31	0	31
Aslam Inamdar	21	2	23
Jaideep Dahiya	0	17	17
Rahul Sethpal	0	16	16
Sumit Sangwan	0	15	15
Ankit Jaglan	0	9	9
Pawan Sehrawat	8	0	8
Sunil Kumar	1	5	6
Gaurav Khatri	0	4	4

Devank Dalal topped the chart overall with 60 points, followed by Arjun Deshwal and Ayan Lohchab on 35 each. Ashu Malik added 31 raid points, and all-rounder Aslam Inamdar contributed 21 raid points and two tackle points. Pawan Sehrawat, the Hangzhou 2022 winning captain, played a nuanced leadership role this time with eight raid points.

Why these numbers matter

Seventeen, 16 and 15. Three defenders inside two points of each other is not a coincidence, it is a sign that no single raider could target one weak spot and no single Indian defender was carrying the unit. Teams that rely on one star corner tend to fall apart when he is caught early. India never had that problem.

It also says something about where these players came from. Jaideep came off the second best defensive season in Pro Kabaddi Season 12, and the league keeps doing its job as the pipeline for the national side on both sides of the mat.

Frequently asked questions

Who was India’s best defender at the 2026 Asian Games?

Jaideep Dahiya, with 17 tackle points, the most by any Indian at the tournament.

How many tackle points did Rahul Sethpal and Sumit Sangwan score?

Rahul finished with 16 tackle points and Sumit with 15, second and third among India’s defenders.

Who captained India at the 2026 Asian Games?

Sunil Kumar captained the men’s team, with Pawan Sehrawat as his deputy.

Did India win the kabaddi gold at the 2026 Asian Games?

Yes. India beat Iran 40-34 in the men’s final on 26 September 2026 for a ninth gold, and the women’s team also won gold.

Conclusion

Jaideep led the way with 17 tackle points at cover, Rahul held the corner with 16, and Sumit added 15 in the games that decided the medal. All three were playing their first Asian Games, and all three came out of it as the backbone of the next Indian side.

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