Fans in India will be expectant of a similar performance and hopeful that the players improve their medals tally from four years ago.
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Table tennis has always been a sport that was viewed at by Indians as a means for recreation. In the past, it never really achieved that status of being one of the sports in which the country can dream about reaching the top. All that was brought to a crunching halt at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, when India’s paddlers rose to the occasion and made the nation proud one of the biggest sporting stages of the world. Eight medals in total were won by the Indian contingent that year and the charge was led by the country’s star TT player, Manika Batra. Medals were won in every single category of the sport and out of the eight, three were gold, two were silver and three were bronze. Fans in India will be expectant of a similar performance and hopeful that the players improve their medals tally from four years ago. Here are a few of the India paddlers that have the potential of being on the podium in Birmingham.
When one thinks Indian table tennis, they think Manika Batra. The 27-year-old paddler is currently ranked 41 in the world and will be the country’s best chance of winning a gold medal in a singles category. Batra will be playing to defend her 2018 crown when she beat Singapore’s Yu Mengyu 4-0 to find herself on the top step of the podium. Batra was also part of the women’s table tennis team that won the gold medal that year and she bagged the bronze with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the mixed doubles category. Batra was awarded India’s highest sporting award in 2020, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna for her exploits in table tennis.
Achanta Sharath Kamal has become somewhat of a legend when it comes to Indian sports. The 40-year-old paddler has an illustrious history of accolades that include a whopping eight medals. Four of those are gold. In 2018, Kamal won four medals including a gold in the men’s tea, category and a bronze in the singles category. At 40, the Chennai-born athlete might have a difficult time replicating his past form, but he is surely one of the medal-favorites in the competition. Currently, Kamal has an international ranking of 39. He won his second career title in 2020 at the ITTF Challenger Plus Oman Open and has been bestowed with the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shree.
Ranked 35 in the international rankings, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is one of the most prolific men’s players India has at the moment. The 29-year-old bagged three medals at the 2018 CWG, including a gold for the men’s team and a silver for the men’s doubles event. This time, the Chennai-born athlete will look to win his maiden singles medal in Birmingham. Although his performance at the Tokyo Olympics was under-par, Sathiyan made amends by winning the WTT Contender mixed doubles title with Manika Batra and the ITTF Czech International Open title.
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