Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar was knocked out of the 2018 Asian Games in his very first bout, raising questions over the future of his wrestling career.

The 35-year-old was never the overwhelming favourite to win the elusive Asian Games gold in Jakarta and the loss may not have come as a surprise to anyone who has followed Sushil’s career in the last few years but the manner in which he lost to Bahrain’s Adam Batirov left a lot to be desired.

At no stage during that bout did Sushil look like he was confident about his abilities and was so tentative in his movements that the commentators were left wondering whether the Commonwealth Games champion was conserving his energy for more challenging bouts later in the day.

The loss means, Sushil has not won an official international bout outside the Commonwealth Games or Commonwealth Championships in the last four years and the obvious question to ask now is whether it is time to look beyond his legacy, which is glorious no doubt, and accept that he is a spent force now.

Any coach or player would accept that the competition level at the Commonwealth stage isn’t even on par with the senior nationals in India and despite that Sushil had used his gold medal winning performances in 2014 and 2018 in Commonwealth Games to underline his form.

He had then skipped the Asian Games and all major competitions after the 2014 CWG in Glasgow citing injuries, only to return demanding a trial for the 2016 Rio Olympics, which was eventually denied. But he returned to the senior nationals in 2017 and played the selection trials before this edition of CWG in which he literally bulldozed his opponents in Gold Coast and the Wrestling Federation of India gave him an exemption from trials for the Asian Games.

However, the really worrying factor was that Sushil didn’t test his mettle against the world’s best in over six years and his frailties were exposed when he lost in the opening bout of the Tiblis Grand Prix in July.

During a recent media interaction, when Sushil was asked about the loss, he said, “I had gone there for training and participated in the competition to just test myself and look at the areas I need to work on. So the body was not well prepared for the competition.”

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But it looked like Sushil’s body was not ready even at the Asian Games despite spending a considerable time in Georgia for training. Though he took a 2-0 lead in the very first minute against Baritov, the speed and strength that was Sushil’s trademark when he dominated the world scene six years ago was nowhere to be seen.

He made an elementary mistake by conceding his first point through a penalty for a foul and never looked like he was keen on hitting top gear even as Batirov changed the tempo in the second period. The Indian did have two opportunities to score points but he wasn’t quick enough to grab the opportunity while his opponent picked four points when it mattered.

Sushil’s next challenge would be the selection trials for the World Championship and though no one else can tell an sportsperson when to put an end to their playing career, the WFI would do well to set a few targets for the 35-year-old and in the meantime invest in giving the second string more exposure in international competitions.

After all, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is just two years away and Sushil won’t be any younger then.