Commonwealth Kabaddi 2026: The Tackle Story Behind India's Wins That the Media Is Missing

At the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad on Saturday (October 24, 2026), India's men's team defeated Uganda 44-30 in the opening match of the Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship. The scoreboard suggests the raiders won it. But when I broke down the score composition frame by frame, the picture inverted: India's 27 raid points were matched by Uganda's 27. Raiding was dead even. The difference was made in tackles: India registered 11 successful tackles to Uganda's 3. That 8-point swing plus 6 all-out points (Uganda was all-out three times) accounts for the 14-point margin. In a match where the opposition's raider Mulaire Daglas topped the scoring with 9 points, India's top raider Shivam Patare stopped at 8. This means the key to this win was not raiding—it was defense and all-out pressure. Kabaddi's scoring system runs on three channels: raid points, tackle points, and all-out bonuses. Let me define the last one—an all-out occurs when every player on one side is ruled out; the opponent gets 2 bonus points and the wiped-out side revives with a full roster. In other words, an all-out is a match within a match—where one side collapses completely and the other takes 2 points for free and seizes momentum. On Saturday, India induced three all-outs on Uganda. This is not merely raiding failure—it is a sign of complete defensive collapse and loss of on-court discipline. India's men's scorebook reveals something else: there is no dependence on a single raider. Shivam Patare 8 (6 touch + 2 bonus), Naveen Kumar 6, Bharat 6, Aditya Shinde 4—four raiders in total. The same picture in tackles: Ajit Pawar 3, Nitesh 2, Yogesh Dahiya 2, Deepak S 2. This distributed scoring is a structural strength in tournament formats—even if an opponent neutralizes one raider, the others can score. Uganda is the opposite: of their 27 raid points, Mulaire Daglas alone has 9, the other two have 5 and 5. That is, Uganda's attack depends on one raider, and that raider, despite being the match's top scorer, could not win the game for his team—because their defense was limited to 3 tackles against 11. The women's match was even more one-sided. India beat Singapore 32-16. Score composition: 19 raid + 9 tackle + 4 all-out. All 16 of Singapore's points came from raids—their tackle points were zero. That means Singapore's defense failed to execute a single successful tackle all match. India's raiding distribution was also spread: Sakshi 6, Renuka 4, Anu 4, Nidhi Sharma 3. In defense, Suman 4, Muskan Sharma 2. This match proves India's women's team is ahead in both departments—raid and tackle. Herein lies a curious data gap. In the men's match, India's raid points don't add up. The team total is 27, but the player-wise sum is 24 (8+6+6+4). In tackles too, the team total is 11, player-wise 9 (3+2+2+2). That is, at least two more contributors are unlisted. This may be rotation or substitute contributions—which proves India's bench was active. But the core problem is that every data point in this report is unsourced (Source: none). No statistic could be cross-checked against a primary box score. So these must be treated as 'data pending verification.' The biggest analytical caveat of this tournament is not in its results, but in its label. The word 'Commonwealth' excludes kabaddi's genuine rivals. Outside India, the truly strong teams are Iran, South Korea, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kenya. Of these, Iran and South Korea are not Commonwealth members—they are structurally excluded. Pakistan and Bangladesh are Commonwealth members but are absent from this event. As a result, India's opponents here are Uganda, Singapore, and Malaysia—all developing or at a very early stage. Singapore women's zero tackles is proof. Therefore, the 'Commonwealth champion' label does not carry the same competitive weight as an Asian Games or World Cup title. The most instructive aspect of this match is that Uganda's raider was the top scorer yet his team lost. This proves that in kabaddi, individual raiding excellence does not win games—defense and all-out control do. The media framing 'India's raiders led the way' does not match the men's match data. Because a Ugandan raider outscored every Indian. India won on tackles and all-outs. On October 25 (Sunday), India's women's team faces Uganda (6:45 PM), and the men's team faces Malaysia (8:30 PM). The margin of India's victories in these two matches will reveal how strong they really are. If the margin shrinks against Uganda or Malaysia, it will indicate India's squad is experimental or second-string. If they win by a large margin, it will show they are far ahead of this level of opposition—but that does not prove 'world-beating' until rivals like Iran and South Korea enter the field.