India, Oct. 4 -- At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, India scripted its best-ever show - 106 medals, with 28 golds and a lot of chatter about the arrival of a sporting nation. Three years hence, India capped off the Aichi-Nagoya edition with 85 medals - their second-best performance at the Asiad - comprising 21 golds. That's fewer in number, and strikingly, with a new cast of champions. Of the 28 golds India defended in Japan this time, only eight came back.

The Indian cricket and kabaddi teams - men and women - the men's hockey team, and three compound team events - men's, women's, and mixed - successfully defended India's gold at the 2026 Asian Games. And those eight golds were rather routine wins for India, anything less than which w...