Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra to lead Indian table tennis teams at Paris Olympics 2024

India’s top-ranked table tennis players Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will lead an eight-member Indian team for the table tennis team events at the Paris Olympics 2024.

The eight-member Indian team also has alternate players in the squad. The Indian team will make their first-ever participation in the team events at the Olympics.

The senior selection committee of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) named a six-member squad (three in each section) as per the Olympics norms, besides naming the individuals who would compete in the singles events.

Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar will form the three-member men’s team, while Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath will be squad members in the women’s category.

The ‘alternate player’ in each section would be Sathiyan Gnansekaran and Ayhika Mukherjee.

In the men’s singles, Sharath and Harmeet will compete and Manika and Sreeja will play the singles in the women’s event.

Since the selection of the squads and the individuals were as per the already pronounced TTFI criteria, three players were unanimous selections because of their consistent performances over time and world rankings.

The selectors pondered over the third player in the women’s squad after Manika and Sreeja Akula walked in on the back of their higher world rankings (top-50). After much deliberations, it was decided by the selection committee that Archana Kamath would make it to the team as the third player. The Bengaluru paddler edged Ayhika Mukherjee with her scoring over the latter on several counts, including her world ranking (103), 33 places ahead of Ayhika.

As for the men, Sharath was the first on the team sheet as the top-ranked Indian at World No. 40, while Hareemt (63) and Manav (62) followed suit.

Though both the men paddlers made it to the team composition, it was Harmeet who got the selectors’ nod in the singles event based on his international (better win-loss proportion to his participation) and national performances.

Incidentally, Massimo Costantini’s presence as a special invitee at the meeting also added teeth as the expert’s inputs proved handy in the selection of the squads.

Indian table tennis teams:

Men: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar.

Alternate player: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.

Women: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Archana Kamath.

Alternate player: Ayhika Mukherjee.