Kabaddi World Cup: India kickstarts men’s title defence with win over Italy

BIRMINGHAM: Defending champions Indian men’s team beat Italy to kickstart their Kabaddi World Cup 2025 campaign in Wolverhampton on Monday. In a largely one-sided match, India beat Italy 64-22 in their Group B match.

With this victory, India is at the top of the group with two points. In the other Group B clash, Scotland defeated Wales by 63-43 and is at second spot in the group. India’s next match will be against Scotland at Wolverhampton on Tuesday.

Both men’s and women’s Indian teams are defending their titles at the Kabaddi World Cup 2025, which started on Monday in England. As per Olympics.com, the tournament will be held across four cities, Birmingham, Coventry, Walsall and Wolverhampton – in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom.

The men’s Kabaddi World Cup will feature 10 teams split into a group of two, with Hungary, England, Poland, Germany, and the USA forming Group A and India in Group B alongside Italy, Scotland, Wales and Hong Kong.

After their single-headed round-robin games, the top four teams from each group will make it to the quarterfinals starting from March 21 onwards.

Coming to the women’s team, it will be a six-team affair, with two groups of three, D and E. Group D will feature India with Wales and Poland, while Group E is made by Hong Kong, Hungary and England. Indian women’s team will kickstart their campaign against Wales on Tuesday.

The top two teams from each group will make it to the semifinals starting from March 21 onwards. The losing semifinalists in men’s and women’s competitions will battle for the third-place in a playoffs clash on March 23 and March 22 respectively.

This is the second Kabaddi World Cup hosted by the World Kabaddi. In the inaugural tournament, held in Malaysia in 2019, India defeated Iraq and Chinese Taipei to capture the men’s and women’s titles. (ANI)