India’s Asian Games Team Is Smaller Than Expected : Whi…

India will head to the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya with a 501-athlete contingent, but the size and composition of the squad have sparked considerable debate in the build-up to the Games.

The difference becomes more striking when compared with India's previous Asian Games campaign in Hangzhou. India sent 655 athletes to the 2023 Games, where it produced a historic 107-medal haul, including 28 golds, 38 silvers and 41 bronzes, finishing fourth in the medal table. This time, the athlete contingent stands at 503 across 36 disciplines, meaning India will have around 150 fewer athletes than it did in Hangzhou. The reduction comes despite the country's record-breaking performance at the previous Games and reflects a clear change in approach from the Sports Ministry, which has prioritised a smaller, performance-focused contingent over maximising participation.

More importantly, several established and promising athletes have been left out after the Sports Ministry adopted a stricter selection policy aimed at sending a “lean” contingent with a realistic medal-winning chance. The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will be held from September 19 to October 4, with India competing across 36 disciplines. The final Indian contingent currently comprises 503 athletes, along with coaches and support staff.

Why is India sending a smaller contingent?

The main reason is the Sports Ministry's selection policy introduced in September 2025. Under the framework, India wants athletes and teams to demonstrate a realistic chance of finishing among the best in Asia. For individual events, athletes generally need to meet a benchmark equivalent to a top-six performance in Asia, while team events require a top-eight standard.

The government has made it clear that the Asian Games are not intended to be used primarily as an exposure event. A Sports Ministry source explained that the objective from the beginning was to send a “lean contingent”, arguing that athletes who had sufficient time to meet the criteria should have done so before selection.

That approach, however, has resulted in some high-profile omissions.

Tennis: Five players miss out

The most prominent selection controversy has emerged in tennis. The All India Tennis Association had initially proposed a larger squad, but the final approved tennis contingent was reduced.

Among those left out were:

• Sahaja Yamalapalli

• Vaishnavi Adkar

• Vaidehee Chaudhari

• Manas Dhamne

• Prarthana Thombare

Sahaja's omission attracted particular attention because she was India's No. 1 women's singles player, while Vaishnavi and Vaidehee were also among India's leading women's singles players. The Sports Ministry maintained that the players did not satisfy the prescribed continental ranking criteria. The decision has nevertheless been criticised by AITA and former players, including Rohan Bopanna, who questioned whether a strict ranking-based approach was appropriate for a multi-sport event where lower-ranked players can sometimes produce major upsets.

Tennis is not the only sport affected by the stricter selection approach. Indian equestrian star Anush Agarwalla was left out of the Asian Games squad and subsequently challenged his exclusion in court.The Delhi High Court subsequently dismissed Agarwalla's appeal, citing tight logistical deadlines and upholding the selection framework. His absence leaves India without its top dressage contender and Hangzhou gold medallist in Nagoya. 

The omission was particularly notable given Agarwalla's credentials. He was India's No. 1 dressage rider, had represented India at the Paris Olympics and was part of the gold-medal-winning team at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where he also won an individual bronze.

Judo: Commonwealth Games champion Harsh Singh left disappointed

Another notable omission came in judo, where Harsh Singh, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, failed to make India's Asian Games squad. His omission highlighted one of the biggest criticisms of the new policy: recent success at a major international event does not automatically guarantee selection if the athlete does not meet the prescribed Asian-level benchmark.

India's athletics team has also undergone significant changes. Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra will miss the Asian Games after an ankle ligament injury ruled him out for the 2026 season. Chopra was originally expected to be one of India's biggest medal hopes in Japan and was targeting a third consecutive Asian Games javelin gold. 

In Chopra's absence, CWG bronze-medallist Yashvir Singh has been called up to fill the javelin spot. However, Chopra's long-time coaching staff will still travel with the 79-member athletics squad to guide the remaining throwers in Nagoya. His absence is therefore different from the selection controversies surrounding athletes such as the tennis players and Anush Agarwalla: Chopra was not dropped under the selection criteria but is unavailable because of injury.

Meanwhile, the athletics contingent has been expanded, with several additional athletes being added to the original list. Athletics now remains India's largest discipline, with 79 athletes in the revised squad.

What does the smaller squad mean for India?

The reduction in numbers represents a clear shift in India's approach to the Asian Games. Instead of maximising participation, the government is prioritising athletes it believes have a genuine medal chance. The policy is designed to make the selection process more objective and prevent large contingents from being built around participation or exposure alone.

But the policy has also created a difficult question: How strictly should medal probability be used to determine who gets an opportunity at a major multi-sport event?

The tennis controversy illustrates the dilemma particularly well. A player may not rank among Asia's top six but could still defeat a higher-ranked opponent in a short tournament. AITA has argued that tennis has multiple medal events, meaning selection based purely on individual rankings may not capture the full medal potential of a team. The government, on the other hand, has argued that relaxing the rules for individual cases could undermine the consistency and credibility of the selection process.

Despite the reduction in numbers, India's 503-athlete contingent remains highly competitive. Athletics, shooting, wrestling, boxing, badminton, hockey and other traditional medal-producing sports will form the backbone of India's campaign. Both men's and women's cricket teams will also compete in Aichi-Nagoya, while India will make its Asian Games debut in surfing.

India will enter the Games after its record-breaking performance in Hangzhou, where it crossed the 100-medal mark for the first time. That achievement sets a difficult benchmark for the Aichi-Nagoya contingent. The challenge is therefore not merely to win medals, but to prove that a smaller and more selective squad can deliver a better medal conversion rate than a larger contingent.

India's smaller Asian Games contingent is ultimately about more than numbers. The Sports Ministry has chosen to move towards an “excellence-first” selection model, with the stated aim of ensuring that public money is spent on athletes with a realistic chance of winning medals. For supporters of the policy, this represents a move towards accountability and performance-based selection.

For critics, the exclusions raise concerns about whether rigid rankings can adequately measure an athlete's potential in a multi-sport event and whether athletes should lose the opportunity to compete simply because they fall outside an administrative benchmark. With the Games beginning on September 19, the results in Aichi-Nagoya will provide the strongest test yet of the policy.

If India can match or surpass its historic Hangzhou medal tally with a significantly smaller athlete pool, the government's lean-contingent approach will gain considerable credibility. If several omitted athletes go on to outperform expectations elsewhere, however, the debate over India's Asian Games selection policy is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.