Commonwealth Games 2022: India's table tennis squad announced, women's team awaits confirmation from SAI

Indian Table Tennis selectors have announced an eight-member squad ahead of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG), following the conclusion of the week-long national camp on Tuesday (May 31).

The paddlers have been training at a national training camp at the Padukone-Dravid Center for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru. A balanced Indian squad includes a mixture of experienced world class paddlers as well as youngsters.

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The men's team comprises of top Indian paddlers Achanta Sharat Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai. Manush Shah will travel as a standby for CWG.

The women's squad has also been named, however, and awaits confirmation from the Sports Authority of India (SAI). The COA said that SAI would take the call as the selectors had deviated from the existing selection policy.

CoA member and chairman of the selection committee, Surinder Dev Mudgil, said:

"Under the existing selection criteria, one of the members (Archana) falls outside the top four. The selection committee is convinced that the existing guidelines are "flawed" and has moved to make necessary course-correction, with new guidelines effective from October 1."

"The coaches and selectors feel this is the best team in the women's section as Archana Kamath is in the top-10 in the world doubles individual rankings while the duo of Archana and Manika are ranked four, top among Commonwealth countries."

He further added:

"But one of the players falls outside the top-4 if you go by the present criteria. We want to do it in a fair manner and want SAI's concurrence on the women's squad. Therefore, the selection committee feels that this is a case worthy of consideration by SAI."

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