UTT 2018: Player's draft for the 2nd edition of the tournament

What's the story?

After a successful inaugural season of Ultimate Table Tennis, the 2nd edition of the tournament will be held later this year, and the player's draft concluded today on 28th March 2018.

In case you didn't know...

The inaugural season of Ultimate Table Tennis was held in 2017 in the month of July. It's the first professional table tennis league in the country and it features six different teams. Falcons TTC clinched their maiden title, to win the first season.

Falcon TTC outclassed Shaze Challengers to win 14-9 in the final which was held at National Sports Club of Indian (NCSI), Mumbai.

The heart of the matter

The player's draft took place on 28th March 2018. 52 players constituted the pool and each franchise had to pick a total of 8 players which included Indian, foreign and senior male and female players.

Only Dabang Smashers and Falcons TTC retained a player each

The defending Champions Falcon TTC retained their coach in the coach's draft which took place earlier in the week. Sanil Shetty became the first player to be retained by any other franchise, as he continues to represent Falcons TTC.

Dabang Samshers also decided to retain Sathiyan Gnanasekharan. Surprisingly, no other team opted to retain any of their players.

Commonwealth Games-bound Achanta Sharath Kamal was picked up by the Yoddhas while Manika Batra joined Gnanasekaran in Dabang Smashers. Young sensation Manav Thakkar was picked up by the Challengers.

What's next?

Except for Dabang Smashers and Falcons TTC, all the other franchises decided to completely reshuffle the entire team. Ultimate Table Tennis will commence from June 14th, 2018.

Author's take

All the franchises were successful in the player's draft today. The second edition of the tournament should be an exciting one as all the teams look stronger and better. Overall, the Dabang Smashers look the strongest on paper.