Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal and India’s best women’s player Manika Batra will spearhead the Indian challenge on World Table Tennis Championships 2023 in Durban, South Africa from Saturday. The matches will be streamed live.
That Indian table tennis the team consists of 11 players. Sharath Kamal will lead the five-man men’s team, which includes the Olympian Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and members of the Asian Games 2018 bronze medal winning team Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai. Manush Shah also made the cut.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is India’s top ranking gentleman Ping pong plays at world No. 51 followed by Sharath Kamal at world No. 53. The experienced duo will also team up for the men’s doubles competition.
Apart from singles and men’s doubles, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran will team up with Manika Batra in mixed doubles. The duo is ranked number 5 in the world.
India has won only two medals at the World Table Tennis Championships. The men’s team and SRG Suppiah in men’s singles each won a bronze at the first edition in 1926.
In the women’s competition, it will be world No. 39, Manika Batra, who will deliver for India. She will compete in singles and will team up with Archana Kamath in women’s doubles. The pair are ranked No. 12 in the world in women’s doubles.
National champion Sreeja Akula (world no. 112), Olympian Sutirtha Mukherjee (world no. 113), Reeth Tennison (world no. 176) will also compete in women’s singles.
The tournament begins from the round of 128 in singles and the round of 64 in each of the doubles competitions. The tournament ends on May 28.
The World Table Tennis Championships will be held on the African continent for the first time since the 1939 edition in Egypt.
Indian squad for ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2023
Men’s Singles: Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manush Shah, Harmeet Desai
Women’s singles: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Reeth Tennison
Men’s doubles: Sharath Kamal/Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai/Manush Shah
Women’s doubles: Manika Batra/Archana Kamath, Sreeja Akula/Diya Chitale
Mixed doubles: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Manika Batra, Manav Thakkar/Archana Kamath
Where to watch ITTF World Table Tennis Championships 2023 live in India
Live streaming of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2023 will be available on the ITTFWorld YouTube channel. The live broadcast of World TT on a TV channel in India is yet to be confirmed.
