CWG 2018 Table Tennis: India announce arrival at the World Stage

Initial Hiccups and Hurdles

When the Table Tennis team boarded the flight for Gold Coast, one of their team’s crucial member and Rio Olympian, Soumyajit Ghosh was rocked with the allegation of committing rape. 72 hours later, it was confirmed by TTFI President, Mr. P C Chaturvedi that he would not make it to the Gold Coast Games. At that stage, the TT team had to change combinations right at the death. The team was slated to participate in the Men’s Team Event, Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles event which had Soumyajit’s heavy presence. Sanil Shetty was drafted in as a replacement.

In the changed scenario, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty teamed up in the Men’s Doubles event while India’s best doubles pairing was made of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (World Number 46) and long-time veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal (ranked 48 in the World). 12 days later, India had improved from the 1 Silver medal they won at Glasgow 2014 to 3 Golds, 2 Silvers and 3 Bronze at Gold Coast. The records were being broken by the Indian paddlers at will. This was probably one of the best ever outings for the Indian Table Tennis team in this decade.

Victorious Men's Team Gold Medalists - (L-R) Achanta Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalraj, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai

India's Rising Superstars: A Show of Global Presence

The star of the show was, however, 22-year-old Manika Batra, who is rumoured to have given up a career in acting for table tennis. After beating World Number 4, Feng Tianwei in the Women’s Team Event, Manika went on to beat Feng in the Singles Event Semis coming from behind to win 13-11 in the deciding set. In the finals, she made it look easy against Mengyu Yu of Singapore, ranked eight places above her, beating her in straight sets.

Such was the dominance that India’s Mixed doubles pairing of Sathiyan G and Manika Batra squared-off in an all Indian bronze medal match against Sharath Kamal and Mouma Das. Sathiyan and Manika triumphed as the Bronze was all for India's to win.

(L-R) Mouma Das and Manika Batra pose with their Women's Doubles Silver Medal

Medals galore as paddlers put up a great show

Maintaining consistency were the Indian Men’s Doubles pair of Sharath and Sathiyan who ensured India’s presence in the finals. They lost out to higher-ranked English opponents Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall 3-2 after leading the set score end of the third game. India’s only medal in the Glasgow CWG in 2014 came in the Men’s Doubles event which was a silver earned by Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj.

Young paddlers Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty showed character and promise and settled for bronze in the Men’s Doubles Event. These paddlers along with Anthony Amalraj also went onto script history capturing the Men’s Team Gold beating Nigeria in the finals. The only other medal that Indian paddlers won was the silver by Women’s Doubles pair of Manika Batra and Mouma Das. This is the first Games where the Men and Women's team both won Gold in the Team Event.

Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in action in the Men's Doubles Final at the Gold Coast Games.

Inspired Coaching and India's Next TT assignment

A lot of credit has to be given to their new national coach, Italian Massimo Costantini. Former national champion and women’s team coach, Soumyadeep Roy too has been a key figure in the team’s progress. India have never been a powerhouse in table tennis on the world stage but it was indeed refreshing to see both Indian mixed doubles teams in the semis. To add to that, a finals appearance for both the Men’s and Women's Doubles TT team.

Besides the Men’s Team Gold, it was more satisfying to see Manika’s individual brilliance that helped her capture both the Team Gold and the Singles gold. The Table Tennis team’s next assignment would be the World Team Table Tennis Championship in Halmstad, Sweden. The same contingent will travel under coach Costantini’s guidance from the 23rd of April to the 6th of May. The Men’s team are seeded 13th whereas the Women are seeded 16th in the World Championship division which also has two divisions below it.

Victorious Women's Team Gold Medalists - (L-R) Manika Batra, Madhurika Patkar, Mouma Das, Suthirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe

Future looks promising

These medals should be motivators for the team going into Sweden. The chances of medals in the Asian Games and the Olympics though are still bleak at this stage. The pool will have powerhouses China, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong besides Singapore and Malaysia who will provide stiff competition to the Indians.

However, to have beaten Nigeria, Singapore and England at various stages of this edition of the CWG was a welcome sign of good things to come in the future.

Left-handed Sanil Shetty in action with Harmeet Desai in their conquest of the Men's Doubles Bronze