NEW DELHI: India's 10-member table tennis squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games in September-October has been announced, with Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra leading the team. The objective is to replicate the historic success achieved in the previous edition.
At the Asian Games in Jakarta five years ago, the Indian table tennis contingent ended a 60-year medal drought by securing a bronze in the men's team event and mixed doubles, surpassing expectations.
The Table Tennis Federation of India's senior selection committee has chosen a squad of five men and five women for both the 26th Asian Championships in Pyeongchang, Korea, and the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The Asian Championships will take place from September 3 to 10, while the Asian Games will be held from September 23 to October 2.
Sharath Kamal, who is likely participating in his final continental games, will lead the men's team, consisting of G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, and Manush Shah.
In the women's category, Manika Batra will guide a young team comprising Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, and Diya Chitale.
Due to restrictions allowing only two singles entries per gender at the Asian Games, the selectors have chosen Sharath, Sathiyan, Manika, and Sreeja for the men's and women's singles events, respectively.
The selectors have justified their decision and faith based on the chosen individuals' reputation, experience and world ranking points.
However, in the Asian Championships, there are no such limitations, and all the men and women players are eligible to play in the singles events.
Sharath will play only in the men's doubles in Hangzhou and Manika in the mixed doubles, both combining with Sathiyan.
"Sharath and Manika have opted out of other doubles events giving a free hand to the selectors on the premise that they would not want to disturb the pairs already performing well," said the TTFI in a statement.
The left-right combination of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar will be the second men's doubles squad.
In the women's doubles, the selectors have gone with the pair of Ayhika and Sutirtha following its fantastic title win in Tunis and Sreeja and Diya will be the second duo. Harmeet will pair up with Sreeja in the second mixed doubles.
Sharath and Manika had paired up in Indonesia five years ago to secure a memorable bronze.
The squads:
(With PTI inputs)
