India Bridge squad at Asian Games 2023: Full team, Schedule, Medal chances

Bridge or Contract bridge made its debut at the Asian Games in 2018. The Indian Bridge contingent will try to repeat their heroics from last time where they won one Gold and two Bronze medals. The Bridge competition will start from 27 September and will continue for 10 days. Medals will be decided on 6 October.

However, the number of medals won in Bridge could go down this time as the Olympic Council of Asia has decided to decrease the number of events to half of what it was in 2018.

Only two events from last edition will be there in Hangzhou - Men's team and Mixed team. There will be a debut for a new event Women's team. The Men's pair, Women's pair, Mixed pair and the Supermixed team have been omitted from this edition. India's only Gold medal from 2018 Asian Games was from Men's pair event.

Indian Bridge Squad at 2023 Asian Games

Men's Team: Jaggy Shivdasani,Sandeep Thakral,Rajeshwar Tiwari,Sumit Mukherjee,Raju Tolani,Ajay Prabhakar

Women's Team: Asha Sharma,Bharti Dey,Puja Batra,Alka Kshirsagar,Kalpana Gurjar,Vidya Patel

Mixed Team: Bachiraju Satyanarayana,Rajeev Khandelwal,Sandeep Karmarkar,Kiran Nadar,Himani Khandelwal,Marianne Karmarkar

Bridge Schedule at 2023 Asian Games

Men's Mixed Team: Round Robin 1 - 11 Sessions (27-29 Sep); Round Robin 2 - 11 Sessions (30 Sep-2 Oct); Semi final: 6 Sessions (3-4 Oct); Final: 6 Sessions (5-6 Oct)

Women's Team: Round Robin 1 - 7 Sessions (27-29 Sep); Round Robin 2 - 7 Sessions (30 sep-2 Oct); Semi final - 6 Sessions (3-4 Oct); Final - 6 Sessions (5-6 Oct)

India at 2023 Asian Games: Medal chances in Bridge

Men's Team | Possible finish - Top 4

Men's Team is the defending Bronze medalist and one of the favourites of getting a medal. Four of the 6 members of 2018 Bronze medal winning team are there this time. Sandeep and Jay are the two new entrants. Singapore is the defending champion with Hong Kong getting silver and China with the bronze alongside India. These four teams will be favourites this time as well with some challenges from UAE, Indonesia and Chinese Taipei. China was the only team to reach quarters at last month's World Championships, where India finished 10th overall and second best in Asia. The other Asians who took part were UAE (19th), Singapore (20th), Hong Kong (21th).

If Indian men's team continue this form, they could be a definite contender for a Gold medal.

Women's Team | Possible finish - 2nd to 4th

The women's Team is debuting at the Asian Games. Bharti Dey is the only player out of these 6 women who have previous experience of Asian Games as she took part in the Women's pair event in 2018.

Like in the men's team event, China is the only Asian women's team who qualified for the quarterfinals and also got the bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships, where India finished 11th overall and as the second best in Asia. Other Asians were Chinese Taipei (16th), Hong Kong (22nd), UAE (23rd).

Like the men's team, the women's team would also consider anything less than a podium finish as below expectations.

Mixed Team | Possible finish - 3rd to 5th

Defending Bronze medalists like the men's team, they will try to go one step forward. Five out of the 6 players have experience of playing in Asian Games as they all took part in 2018. Only Sandeep Karmarkar is making his debut.

Like in the other two categories, China is the only team who finished in the top 8 at the World Championships last month but this time Chinese Taipei is the second best Asian team at 9th. Other Asians who took part were India (16th), Singapore (17th) and UAE (19th).