Shrikrishna starts his title defence

Shrikrishna is the defending champion in the sub-junior billiards, sub-junior snooker and junior billiards sections. Only in the junior snooker he could not win the title, which was won by Ashotosh Padhi of Odisha.

Shrikrishna gets a bye into the second round in the sub-junior billiards draw as defending champion and will meet the winner of the match between Irshad Ali of West Bengal and Parth Maheswari of Karnataka. The Chennai lad has his match on Friday afternoon. 

In the sub-junior snooker section, he plays his first match on Saturday again in the second round, meeting the winner of the match between Himanshu Kotyal (Uttarakhand) and Amir Khan (UP). 

For the first time in the Junior Boys Snooker category, league cum knock out format has been introduced instead of the usual knock out format. League matches have been divided into 16 groups of 4 players each. Two players will qualify from each group to the knock out stage. Shrikrishna will play his first match in the group on December 6. 

“I am keenly looking forward to the National Championship at Bengaluru. I have aggregated nine medals in the last three nationals, including six gold. Having said that, I do not walk into the tournament with any expectation. I want to put in my best efforts to outperform myself every time I am in a tournament,” Shrikrishna said before leaving for the tournament on Thursday.

However, he knows that he cannot afford to take anything for granted. “There are quite a few players with international exposure in the Under-18 and Under-21 category having played in Under-16, Under-18 and Under-21 events. The competition is going to be tough. I want to put my best foot forward,” said Shrikrishna. 

Shrikrishna’s coach and father Suryanarayanan said players like Digvijay Kadian, Ranveer Duggal, Kreish Gurbaxani are all capable of making good breaks when they get an opening. “There are also other promising players like Karmesh Patel, Jonah Mark Anthony (Chennai), Mehul Saini, Rayaan Razmi, ShayaanRazmi, Kaavya Bharath(Chennai), and Shaik Najeeb Ahmed and Sparsh Pherwani, who are all good,” he noted.