Tokyo Paralympics: Paddler Sharath Kamal wishes Indian contingent luck

Table tennis player Sharath Kamal has wished the Indian Paralympics team luck as it gears up for the upcoming Games. The Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games is set to take place from August 24 to September 5. Taking to Twitter, the star paddler wrote: "Wonderful to see a large contingent setting out for the @Paralympics this year. My best wishes to each athlete participating! Let us continue cheering for our athletes. #Praise4Para #Cheer4India @ParalympicIndia @DeepaAthlete @ianuragthakur."

India will be fielding its largest ever contingent this year with 54 Paralympic athletes participating across nine sporting disciplines. Some of the Indian athletes in action will be Sumit Antil and Sandeep Chaudhary in javelin; Manish Narwal (10m air pistol), Singhraj (10m air pistol), and Avani Lekhara (10m air rifle, 50m air rifle) in shooting and Mariyappan Thangavelu in high jump. Mariyappan will also be the flag bearer for the Indian team. Badminton will make its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games, which will feature as many as five shuttlers in the men's category -- Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar, Tarun Dhillon, Suhas Yathiraj, and Krishna Nagar -- alongside the women's doubles pairing of Parul Parmar and Palak Kohli.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, 19 Indian para-athletes featured in the showpiece event across five sports clinching two Gold, one Silver, and one Bronze medal.