The ladies’s doubles pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee had been rewarded for its WTT Contender name because the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) on Friday introduced a 10-member squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Asian Championships previous that.
Reigning Commonwealth Games (CWG) blended doubles champions, Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula, won’t pair up for the blended on the Games since Sharath, 40, felt the latter must play with every other spouse having a look at the long run.
CWG singles champion Sharath, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah include the lads’s squad whilst Manika Batra, Sreeja, Sutirtha, Ayhika and Diya Chitale shape the ladies’s group for each occasions.
Sharath, the architect of the unexpected CWG blended doubles gold along Sreeja, opted out of pairing up with Sreeja maintaining the following CWG in thoughts. Sreeja will as a substitute spouse the 29-year-old Desai.
“We need to start looking out for a second pair (in mixed), especially for the next Commonwealth Games which we don’t have,” mentioned Sharath. “Post Birmingham, I mentioned Sreeja must be having a look out for every other participant. So, if I come again and play together with her (on the Asian Games), it’ll be a one-off event. That’s now not the precise path. That’s why I felt she must be capable to in finding every other spouse who is in a position to take her via at some point somewhat than rely on me.”
Sutirtha and Ayhika, who were both not part of the 2022 CWG, will be one of the two women’s doubles combos at the Asian Games. The duo scripted a brilliant title run at the WTT Contender Tunis last month and is now the country’s top women’s doubles pair (ranked world No.19).
They replaced Manika and Archana Kamath, who were a top-10 pair not too long ago but haven’t had much success of late. Archana, who was originally picked and later dropped from the CWG squad amid a flurry of court cases, has been pushed to the reserves list for both events. The selection of flip-flops led to the scratch pairing of Manika and young Diya playing doubles at the Birmingham CWG. At the Asian Games, Diya and Sreeja will pair up. Manika, who will play singles and mixed with Sathiyan, “opted out” of women’s doubles to “now not need to disturb the pairs already acting neatly,” the TTFI unlock mentioned.
Sharath, Sathiyan, Manika and Sreeja will compete in singles on the Asian Games, the place there are restrictions on two singles entries in keeping with gender.
SQUAD:
Men: Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah.
Women: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Diya Chitale.
Men’s doubles: Sharath Kamal/G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkar/Manush Shah.
Women’s doubles: Sutirtha Mukherjee/Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale.
Mixed doubles: Manika Batra/G Sathiyan and Sreeja Akula/Harmeet Desai.