India take on Australia in an extremely important Group A clash of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup on October 8th. The host nation was stunned on the opening day of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup when South Korea turned produced a stunning comeback to overturn a first half deficit to shock India in the last few minutes of the game. Australia, India’s opponents in the third game of the tournament, will be wary of the home team, which will be looking to hand a thorough beating to the minnows.
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Problems aplenty surfaced for India in the first game as they never looked in control of the game despite being in the lead for a significant part. South Korea’s defence stayed put and did not let Rahul Chaudhari get away, something that turned out to be a big reason for India’s defeat in the end. From a defence perspective, Mohit Chhillar had quite a poor day out as he was literally invisible for a large part of the game.
Apart from Manjeet Chhillar and Dharmaraj Cheralathan in bits, India’s defending was quite lacklustre and allowed South Korea to keep the deficit within their reach. Balwan Singh’s selection is going to be critical in the game today and whether he still stays put with Jasvir Singh or brings in Sandeep Narwal to add a bit of energy remains to be seen. Mohit Chhillar, after yesterday’s disappointment, could be kept on the bench while Deepak Niwas Hooda could start for India, given his all round abilities.
Australia, on the other hand, are absolute underdogs and they will not go into this game with a lot of expectations, given the vast difference between them and their opponents. Luckily for Australia, they are being coached by former Jaipur Pink Panthers player Navneet Gautam, who is likely to tell them a thing or two about the Indian team. Furthermore, Australia have within their ranks three players of Indian origin.
One thing that works in favour of Australia is that nobody will be expecting them to win or even come close, thereby giving the team a chance to express itself. Australians are known to be extremely competitive and nothing less should be expected in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup.
Match Prediction
India’s loss against South Korea was an important wake up call for the host nation and they would want to shake off the loss by winning by a huge margin. Unlike the match against South Korea, India can be expected to come out all guns blazing against Australia and players like Rahul Chaudhari and Mohit Chhillar would want to redeem themselves after a poor showing in the opening match.
Australia, on the other hand, could be an unpredictable side as no one has seen them play in the past, which means a lot of surprises. Also, Navneet Gautam’s presence as the coach will ensure much better preparation than what USA had against Iran yesterday. The men from Down Under will need to curtail India from the beginning and avoid conceding too big a lead. If they manage to do that and stretch the game to the second half, Australia could come close to causing an upset.
Verdict: India to reigster thumping win
Match Info
Venue: The Arena by TransStadia, Ahmedabad
Time: 21:00 IST
Live Telecast: Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD2, Star Sports HD3, Hotstar
Squads
India: Squad: Anup Kumar (Captain), Rahul Chaudhari, Manjeet Chhillar, Jasvir Singh, Deepak Niwas Hooda, Pardeep Narwal, Mohit Chhillar, Surender Nada, Surjeet, Ajay Thakur, Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Kiran Parmar, Nitin Tomar, Sandeep Narwal
Australia: Campbell Brown (Captain), Adam Schneider, Benjamin Nugent, Matthew Kos, Nicholas Cunningham, Nishant Sangwan, Stephen Milne, Thomas Sharp, Dominick Lo Presti, Jasvir Singh, Kuldeep Singh
