No Manika Batra in India’s Asian Championship squad

Express News Service

NEW DELHI:  The squad for the Asian Championships to be held in Doha from September 28-October 5 was announced by Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) Wednesday. And it was mainly along expected lines with the omission of India’s top woman paddler, Manika Batra, set to be the major talking point.

The men’s team will be spearheaded by A Sharath Kamal, the country’s highest-ranked paddler at World No 33. G Sathiyan (World No 38), Harmeet Desai (71), Manav Thakkar (134) and Sanil Shetty (247) are the other members.

Among women, World No 97 Sutirtha Mu­kherjee will lead the women’s team and she will be accompanied by Ayhika Mukherjee (131), Archana Kamath (132) and Akula Sreeja (143). 

The federation had already intimated to all paddlers post the Tokyo Olympics that for a player to be eligible for selection, they will have to attend na­tional camps.

Despite the notice, Manika chose to stay behi­n­d in Pune and train with her personal coach.

Sathiyan and Harmeet had also initially opted out due to European le­a­g­ue commitments but ultimately jo­ined at a later date while Su­t­i­rtha recovered from fever and joined up with the group.

The Asian Championships might be a great chance for India to medal as China has opted out of the tournament due to the event clashing with their own National Games.

This effectively puts Team India at fourth spot among the seeds, up from fifth. And with both semifinalists earning a bronze, it means if Indian paddlers can play to their potential, a medal is a definite possibility.

In men’s doubles, India will have two pairs, Sathiyan-Sharath and Manav-Harmeet, while among women, the combinations will be Sutirtha and Ayhika, Sreeja and Archana.

In the mixed section, the pairings will be Manav and Archana, Harmeet and Sreeja.