Asian Games 2026: What are India's medal chances as Teqball makes debut?

India’s campaign at the 2026 Asian Games will begin via Teqball on Thursday, two days before the opening ceremony. In a sport unknown to a vast majority of India’s 1.4 billion population, Declan Gonsalves, Mohammed Anas Beg, and Quimcy D’Souza will take centre stage at the Higashi Sports Centre in Nagoya.

The trio will compete in three events – women’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles – as Teqball makes its Asian Games debut, shouldering the burden to put their beloved sport in the Indian sporting map.

So, what are India’s medal chances at the 2026 Asian Games? Well, Gonsalves, Beg, and D’ Souza, all of whom juggle day jobs with the sport, do not start as gold medal favourties in any of the three events.

But they surely have proven enough to be considered a serious threat at the continental level.

Gonsalves-Beg, the best medal bet

The men’s doubles pairing of Gonsalves and Beg will be India’s bet for a medal in Teqball. In fact, if everything goes well, they might well be the country’s first medallists in Nagoya.

Gonsalves and Beg put themselves on the map nearly two years when they became the first Indians to win a medal at the Teqball World Championships – a bronze.

Gonsalves and Beg are currently ranked 23rd and 25th respectively in the men’s doubles world rankings, but it is a discipline usually dominated by the Europeans.

They are drawn in Group B for the Asian Games alongside Vietnam’s Ba Truong Giang and Le Anh Khoa, South Korea’s Lee Junsuk and Taebeen, both pairs ranked much lower than them.

At the Asian level, the Indian duo is the second highest ranked pair behind Thailand’s Jirati Chanliang (world No 4) and Sorrasak Thaosiri (world No 8), who are drawn in Group A.

Chanliang and Thaosiri are the same pair that Gonsalves and Beg had lost to in the semi-finals of their bronze medal winning run at the World Championships two years back.

If Gonsalves and Beg manage to advance to the knockouts from what is a comfortable group, and successfully avoid the Thai pair in the quarter-finals, India might well wake up to new sporting heroes in an unknown sport.

Quimcy D’Souza, lone Indian woman

D’Souza is the lone Indian woman to qualify for the 2026 Asian Games in Teqball. She is drawn in Group A of women’s singles alongside Cambodia’s DY Koemyean and Japan’s Yuina Sakamoto.

The Japanese is the second highest ranked Asian in the discipline, ranked world No 7 behind Thailand’s Jutatip Kuntatong, who is not registered to compete in women’s singles at Nagoya.

Moreover, D’Souza last played a competitive singles match in December last year. Her career singles record of 2 wins and 10 losses also paints a sorry picture.

Besides, with higher ranked Aidana Otorbaeva of Kyrgyzstan and Dandal Kamar of Lebanon drawn in Group B, world No 24 D’Souza’s chances of a medal finish look bleak even if she makes it to the knockouts.

D’Souza-Beg in mixed doubles

D’Souza and Beg, who’ll team up for mixed doubles in Nagoya, are ranked 106th and 102nd respectively in the world rankings.

They are drawn in a group with Asia’s best pair from Thailand comprising of Suphawadi Wongkhamchan and Phakpong Dejaroen. Japan’s Sakamoto and Akinori Wase in the opposite group are the other strong contenders for a podium finish in mixed doubles.

But the fact that the seven other pairs in contention across the two groups also are scratch pairings, D’Souza and Beg might be in with an outside chance, thanks to their existing chemistry.

Indian Teqball Squad for Asian Games

Declan Gonsalves, Mohammed Anas Beg, Quimcy D’Souza

Where to watch?

You can catch all the LIVE action from the 2026 Asian Games on the Sony Sports Network.