Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra to lead Indian table tennis teams at Paris Olympics; G Sathiyan, Ayhika Mukherjee miss out from singles

Ace Indian paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will lead the Indian team's challenge at the 2024 Paris Olympics this year in the July-August period, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) announced on Thursday, May 16.

TTFI's senior selection committee held a meeting on Thursday to announce a six-member squad (three in men's and three in women's team) according to the Olympic norms.

Gujarat paddlers Manav Thakkar (World No. 62) and Harmeet Desai (World No. 63) will join Sharath to form the three-member core squad for the men's team, while youngsters Sreeja Akula (World No. 41) and Archana Kamath (World No. 103) were included in the women's team alongside Batra.

Gnanasekaran Sathiyan (World No. 68) and Ayhika Mukherjee (World No. 136) have been named as the 'Alternate Player' in men's and women's teams, respectively.

Sharath, who has been named the Indian contingent's flagbearer for the Paris Olympics, will play his fifth Olympics in the men's singles event. Reigning national champion Harmeet Desai has been handed the second slot for the men's singles event. This means Sathiyan won't make it to the singles event this summer.

Manika Batra, who regained India's No. 1 spot following a tremendous run at the Saudi Smash earlier this month, is all set to feature in her third Olympics event in women's singles. Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sreeja Akula will make her debut at the quadrennial showpiece.

Why did G Sathiyan and Ayhika Mukherjee miss out on singles slots in India's table tennis squad for Paris Olympics?

This will be the first time India will field both men's and women's teams at the Olympics since these events replaced doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The biggest question here is how did G Sathiyan and Ayhika Mukherjee miss the selection for the singles and the three-member core squad for teams. The answer is simple. World Rankings, besides other factors such as win-loss ratio and national performances, have worked against them.

"As for the men, Sharath picked himself as the top-ranked Indian at No. 40, while Harmeet (No. 63) and Manav (No. 62) were separated by one slot in WR. Though both made it to the team composition, national champion Harmeet got the selectors' nod based on his international (better win-loss proportion to his participation) and national performances," the TTFI statement read.

"However, there was a debate over the third player for the women's squad. After Manika and Sreeja Akula walked in on the back of their higher world rankings (top 50), Archana Kamath made it to the team as the third player. The Bengaluru paddler edged Ayhika Mukherjee out as the former scored over the latter on several counts, including her world ranking (No. 103), 33 places ahead of Ayhika," it explained on women's selection.

India will chase an elusive medal after the paddlers couldn't finish on the podium in any of the categories since the sport made its Olympics debut in 1988 in Seoul. China is the most successful nation, having bagged 32 gold medals out of the available 37 from 1988 to 2020.