# Passport names confuse fans as India wins Asian Games gold 2026-10-03T09:21:52+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets Cricket fans were baffled on Saturday, 3 October, when India's Asian Games final XI against Pakistan featured unfamiliar names such as T.T.V. Namboori, S. Vishwanadh and W.S. Mani Sundar. Both indiatoday.in and indiatvnews.com report that the scorecard used players' official passport names, not their common cricket names. T.T.V. Namboori is Tilak Varma, S. Vishwanadh is Sanju Samson, and W.S. Mani Sundar is Washington Sundar. The confusion did not affect India's performance. India posted 211 for 6, with Abhishek Sharma scoring 61 off 28 balls and Tilak Varma hitting an unbeaten 51 off 22 balls. Pakistan were restricted to 192, giving India a 19-run win and the gold medal at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both indiatoday.in and indiatvnews.com report the same story with near-identical framing: the passport-name confusion is presented as a quirky subplot to a dominant Indian victory. Neither outlet critiques the practice or explores why the Asian Games uses registered names. indiatoday.in adds more detail on the nostalgia factor by comparing the scorecard to EA Sports' Cricket 07, while indiatvnews.com includes India's medal tally position. The coverage is uniform straight reporting, the substantive takeaway is that the naming convention caused a brief public puzzle but had no bearing on the result. India's 19th gold of the Games leaves them fifth in the medal tally with 19 golds, 26 silvers and 36 bronze medals. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - indiatoday.in (neutral report) Straight reporting of naming confusion and match result - indiatvnews.com (neutral report) Straight reporting of naming confusion and match result This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: Abhishek Sharma, Asian Games, India, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/passport-names-confuse-fans-as-india-wins-asian-games-gold/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/passport-names-confuse-fans-as-india-wins-asian-games-gold/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/