Ten-member team for Asian TT Championship

The other team members include Soumyajit Ghosh, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, Manika Batra, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe and Mouma Das. The team members are accompanied by foreign expert Massimo Costantini and coach Arup Basak with a support staff in physiotherapist Kishore Dey. 

For the first time in recent years, the sports ministry has also sanctioned a sparring partner in defensive player Lalrin Puia who will stay the entire duration of the championships between April 9 and 16. 

The team members, who are currently training at Shanghai’s National Training Centre, will leave for the championships venue at Wuxi, a three-hour drive from Chinese business capital. 

Except for Sharath and Ghosh, all other players had participated in the Thailand Open before arriving at Shanghai on April 4 for a short camp where they had an intense training session, according to foreign expert Massimo. 

“The team members are in good shape and they are bolstered by the arrival of both Sharath and Ghosh,” said Massimo before leaving for Wuxi. For the prestigious championships, ITTF has nominated Ganeshan Neelakana Iyer as the competition manager with Atul Dubey from Rajasthan as one of his deputy referees.