India's most decorated kabaddi names have begun their formal build-up to the 2026 Asian Games with a high-performance strength-and-conditioning camp at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) in Bellary, the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) has confirmed. The camp, scheduled from 27 March to 2 April, marks the official start of India's defence of the men's and women's kabaddi titles they won at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.
The men's contingent at the camp reads as a who's who of contemporary Pro Kabaddi League talent. Naveen Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat, Arjun Deshwal, Aslam Inamdar, Sunil Kumar, Ashu Malik and Bharat Hooda are among the named probables, giving India's coaching staff direct access to the bulk of the players who will form the core of the Asian Games squad.
The women's group is similarly stacked. India's reigning Women's Kabaddi World Cup squad has been heavily represented, including skipper Ritu Negi, Sonali Vishnu Shingate, Pushpa Rana, Champa Thakur, Pinki Roy, Priya and Karthika R.
Vibhor Vineet Jain, president of the AKFI, framed the camp as an inflection point for Indian kabaddi's elite performance pipeline. "This initiative is an important step in our preparations as we continue to raise the standard of kabaddi in India," Jain said.
PKL commissioner Anupam Goswami highlighted the camp's intentionally broad reach. "Since we are working with 45 probables in each group, the benefits of this camp will extend to many more athletes beyond the final Indian kabaddi squads for the Asian Games," Goswami said. The structure mirrors the wider trend in Indian Olympic-track sports of running deep probables groups to keep replacement-level athletes ready for late call-ups.
The Inspire Institute of Sport venue is significant. IIS in Bellary has emerged as one of India's premier high-performance hubs, with sports-science staff, recovery facilities and dedicated strength-and-conditioning blocks that allow national federations to run camps to international standards. AKFI's choice of IIS reflects the federation's stated push to put kabaddi on the same scientific footing as India's medal-track Olympic disciplines.
The Asian Games kabaddi event will be among the most competitive yet. Iran's recent gold at the 2026 Asian Beach Games in Sanya, where they beat India 44-31 in the final, has put fresh pressure on the Indian men, while Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Korea continue to invest in their domestic structures. India arrive as defending champions in both genders, but the margin for error has narrowed.
For the players, the Bellary camp doubles as a rest-and-rebuild block following the conclusion of PKL Season 12, where Dabang Delhi K.C. claimed the title with a 31-28 win over Puneri Paltan in October 2025. With the Asian Games still months away, the camp is heavy on conditioning, strength benchmarking and injury-prevention work rather than on tactical drills, with technical phases scheduled later in the calendar once the squad is finalised.
