India in Group D of the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers

Draw for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 was held at Bengaluru, India on June 6, 2019, with South Asian powerhouse India drawn in group D while another South Asian team, Sri Lanka, is drawn in group F.

India has been pooled along with Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon while Sri Lanka will face Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Palestine in their quest to qualify for Asia’s biggest basketball competition. Defending champions Australia is drawn in group C with Guam, Hong Kong, and New Zealand

24 participating nations are drawn in 6 groups with each group containing 4 teams.

Below are the groups.

Group A: Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Thailand

Group B: China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Malaysia

Group C: Australia, Guam, Hong Kong, New Zealand

Group D: Bahrain, India, Iraq, Lebanon

Group E: Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Group F: Jordan, Kazakhstan, Palestine, Sri Lanka

Each participating team will play each other two times in their respective groups. The matches will be played in home and away basis in three windows (November 2019, February 2020, and November 2020) and each team will play 2 matches in a window.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021. Third place teams of each group will get a chance to play a final qualifying tournament in February 2021 and top 4 teams from that tournament will get their ticket to the FIBA Asia Cup 2021.

The FIBA Asia Cup will be organized in every 4 years. It was formerly known as FIBA Asia Championship and was organized in 2 years cycle until 2017. It was then renamed as the FIBA Asia Cup and is to be organized in a 4-year cycle beginning this year.

FIBA Asia Championship was organized for the first time in 1960 in Manila, Philippines. The hosts won the gold in the inaugural edition of the competition defeating China in the final. China is currently the most successful team in the competition, having won the championship 16 times.