The Contenders

Indians nurture the view that wrestling is a great Indian sport, but the fact is that we’ve found modest success in Asian Games: Yogeshwar Dutt’s gold at the 2014 Incheon Games was India’s first Asiad gold in 28 years. Japan has won 66 Asian Games gold, Iran 64 and South Korea 52. India have won nine and rank seventh on the all-time medal winners table.  Iran and South Korea have been topping Asian Games medal counts since 1986, and India would have to perform extremely well to win even one gold. 

These are India’s best bets for gold in Indonesia: 

Men

Bajrang Punia

65kg Freestyle

Ranked No. 1 in Asia

Won gold at the April Commonwealth Games, and had won silver at the 2014 Asian Games. He’s in good form, having won the Tbilisi Grand Prix gold and Yasar Dogu International gold in Istanbul in July.

Sushil Kumar

74kg Freestyle

The greatest Indian Olympian, having won two medals at consecutive Olympics, has only a bronze to show from the Asian Games, which he won in 2006. He skipped the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games. He was in devastating form at the April Commonwealth Games, but the Asian Games would be infinitely tougher. Can the legend, at age 35, win gold at Asian Games? It seems quite unlikely because there are strong wrestlers from Iran, Japan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in his weight category. Sushil lost 4-8 to Andrzej Piotr Sokalski of Poland at the Tbilisi Grand Prix last month. Sokalski was beaten by Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan, the current Asia No. 2. 

Women

Vinesh Phogat

Women’s 50kg Freestyle

Ranked No. 4 in Asia

Vinesh Phogat was one of India’s five gold winners at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and thus would be brimming with confidence. At the 2014 Asian Games, Vinesh won a bronze medal — at age 19 — after she had won gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. She would have to fight out of her skin to win a gold at Jakarta — three Asian women are ranked higher than her in her category. At the Asian Championships early this year, Vinesh reached the final but lost to China’s Lei Chun, who is current Asia No. 2.

Sakshi Malik

Women’s 62kg Freestyle

Ranked No. 5  in Asia

The Rio Olympics bronze medal winner has a good chance of winning a medal in Jakarta. She won a silver medal at last year’s Asian Championships but her bronze at this year’s Commonwealth Games was disappointing. She won a bronze at the Asian Championships earlier this year.