FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers: Indian basketball team loses to Iran

The Indian men’s basketball team suffered an 86-53 defeat against Iran in its second Group E match of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers 2025 at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Monday.

This was India’s second loss in the competition, having gone down to Kazakhstan by a 63-50 margin in their opening match on Friday. Iran lead the Group E points table with two wins out of two. 

The top two teams from the group will make it to the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 in Saudi Arabia. The third-placed teams from each of the six groups will play in another qualifying tournament for the remaining four places at the main event.

India, 81st in FIBA rankings, matched world No. 27 Iran shot for shot at the start of the opening quarter as the score was tied at 15-15 after eight minutes. 

Arvind Kumar Muthu Krishnan, Muin Bek Hafeez, Amritpal Singh and Pranav Prince all got on the scoresheet for the Indian basketball team but Iran, the top-ranked side in the group, ended the quarter leading 23-20. 

The Indian basketball team did well to chase Iran in the second quarter and chipped away at the deficit. The hosts were trailing by just three points with just over three minutes to go for the half-time. However, Iran upped the ante to end the first half with a 42-32 lead.

The points started flowing freely for Iran in the second half. Salar Monji, the top-scorer in the match with 14 points, helped Iran score 25 points and concede just 12 in the third quarter.

The final quarter saw India concede 19, score 9 and lose the match by a margin of 33 points. Pranav Prince top-scored for India with 11 points.

The Indian basketball team will next take on Qatar and Kazakhstan in November before concluding their FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers campaign with matches against Iran and Qatar in February next year.