Asian Games 2018: From Kabaddi to Badminton, India's biggest duds in Jakarta-Palembang

The biggest disappointment for India has to be the men's kabaddi team. The sport was introduced at the Asian Games in 1990 and the Indian men's team had won gold each time since. This time, however, they had to settle for bronze after losing to Iran.

(Image: Twitter @Ra_THORe)

The Indian men's hockey team was the favourite to win gold in its event. The Harendra Singh-coached side scored a jaw-dropping 74 goals leading up to their semi-final match, but ended up losing it to Malaysia in the penalty shoot-out. India did manage to beat Pakistan for the bronze medal, but failing to bring home gold is surely a bitter pill. The result also meant the team failed to earn direct qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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While Indian badminton's superstars PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal won silver and bronze, the top male players came up a cropper. Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy were expected to win medals for the country but both got knocked out in the second round itself.

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India sent a total of 10 boxers to Jakarta-Palembang. Barring Amit Panghal's sensational gold and Vikas Krishan's respectable bronze, none of the Indian pugilists managed to land a medal.

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Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat might've caught the country's imagination by winning gold medals, but that doesn't take away from the fact that India's medal count in wrestling came down from the last time. In 2014, the country got five medals in wrestling. This time there were just three, Divya Kakran's bronze being the third. This is surely not the direction Indian wrestling should be heading in. The biggest shocker, of course, was the first-round exit of the legendary Sushil Kumar.

(Image: Reuters)