Indian basketball team qualifies for FIBA World Cup

The Indian U17 3x3 basketball team, on Sunday, created history as they became qualified the for the U18 3x3 FIBA World Cup for the first time since 2011. They will now play in the upcoming FIBA U18 3x3 World Cup next year.

The Indian team comprising of Jaideep Rathore, Kushal Singh, Harsh Dugar, and Lokendra Singh achieved this feat after they made their way into the final of the ongoing U17 3x3 Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia earlier today.

The Indian cagers defeated the team from Chinese Taipei 21-20 in dying minutes to book their slot in the final of the continental showpiece event. Earlier, India had defeated Jordan by a big margin of 21-9 in the quarterfinals.

They will now face Japan in the final later today.

Both the Indian men's and women's basketball team has previously played in the inaugural edition of the FIBA U18 3x3 World Cup back in 2011. That remains India's only appearance in any format or age-group of basketball World Cup. While the Indian men finished 29th overall, the women finished 16th back then.

Women lose in quarterfinal of U17 3x3 Asia Cup

On the other hand, the Indian women's team went down to Chinese Taipei 4-21 in the quarterfinals of the U17 3x3 Asia Cup earlier today. The Indians seemed to be no match to the the opponents as they surrendered tamely.

India had reached the quarterfinals with a 13-11 win over Turkmenistan followed by hard-fought 14-15 loss against Singapore in their Pool D matches.