  We investigate the prospect of constraining scalar field dark energy models
using HI 21-cm intensity mapping surveys. We consider a wide class of coupled
scalar field dark energy models whose predictions about the background
cosmological evolution are different from the $\Lambda$CDM predictions by a few
percent. We find that these models can be statistically distinguished from
$\Lambda$CDM through their imprint on the 21-cm angular power spectrum. At the
fiducial $z= 1.5$, corresponding to a radio interferometric observation of the
post-reionization HI 21 cm observation at frequency $568 \rm MHz$, these models
can infact be distinguished from the $\Lambda$CDM model at $ {\rm SNR }> 3
\sigma$ level using a 10,000 hr radio observation distributed over 40 pointings
of a SKA1-mid like radio-telescope. We also show that tracker models are more
likely to be ruled out in comparison with $\Lambda$CDM than the thawer models.
Future radio observations can be instrumental in obtaining tighter constraints
on the parameter space of dark energy models and supplement the bounds obtained
from background studies.
