Yashaswini Ghorpade to lead India's challenge at Asian Youth Table Tennis

A 14-member table tennis squad will represent India in the 27th Asian Youth Table Tennis Championships in Doha from July 17 to July 22.

The team comprising seven boys and seven girls was picked by the selectors based on their rankings in the Under-19 and Under15 categories. Along with 14 players, three coaches, and two support staff will accompany the team.

Yashaswini Ghorpade coming on the back of a title win at WTT Youth Contender Rio, will lead the challenge in Girl's category while the U-17 Boys champion at Rio. Ankur Bhattacharjee will lead it in Boys.

The Doha championship is a qualification event for the 2023 ITTF World Youth Championships at Nova Garcia, Slovenia, which is slated from November 23 to December 3.

The Indians can hope to grab one of the six spots each in the two sections, in singles out of the 20 spots, and doubles on combined world ranking points for the World Youth Championships.

The Indian players had qualified for the Tunisia edition, which featured singles, doubles, and team events, last year.

The Indian U-19 boys finished with a bronze medal in the last edition of the Asian Juniors in Laos to qualify for the Doha championships, and the girls topped at the regional Youth championships, a qualification event for Doha held at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, in May.

Asian Youth Table Tennis Squad:

Boys: Ankur Bhattacharjee, Divyan Srivastava, Jash Modi, P.B. Abhinand, Sarth Mishra, Punit Biswas, and Priyanuj Bhattacharyya.

Girls: Yashaswini Ghorpade, Suhana Saini, Jennifer Varghese, Taneesha Kotecha, Avisha Karmakar, Sayanika Maji, and Sayali Wani.

Coaches: Anindita Chakraborty, Jay Modak, and R. Rajesh.

Support staff: Himanshu and Amandeep.