Table Tennis Federation of India announced a 10-member Indian table tennis squad for Asian Games 2018. The team included big names like Manika Batra, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sharath Kamal.
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Both the team’s and women’s squad have made one change from the Commonwealth Games squad. Manav Thakkar who has impressed one and all with his impressive performance in ongoing Ultimate Table Tennis League got rewarded with a place in the team. He replaces Sanil Shetty. In the women’s squad Ayhika Mukherjee replaced Pooja Sahasrabuddhe.
Rape accused paddler Soumyajit Ghosh, who was ignored from the CWG squad again failed to make it to the Asian games squad. Ghosh was accused of raping a 18-year-old.
After a successful campaign at the Commonwealth Games 2018 and bagging as many as 7 medals, the hopes will be certainly high from them to bag a handful of medals at the Asian event. However, the challenge will be a bit more tougher than the CWG in the presence of China, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
Most successful team
China is the most successful team in the event with a total of 121 medals. Following them are Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, North Korea, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Indonesia and Iran.
Unfortunately, India have not yet won a medal in Asian Games.
The Asian Games are set to begin from August 18 to September 2 in Indonesia.
India TT at 2014 Asian games
Manika Batra and rape accused Soumyajit Ghosh were the most successful paddlers for India in the last edition. Both the players went on till the third round of Asian sporting extravaganza.
Indian table tennis squad for Asian Games 2018
Mens squad: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Anthony Amalraj, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar
Womens squad: Manika Batra, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Ayhika Mukharjee, Suthirta Mukherjee
