Davis Cup: India’s top-ranked singles player Sumit Nagal left out for Croatia tie

What’s the story?

India made an unexpected last-minute change by leaving out their No. 1 player, Sumit Nagal, from their Davis Cup World Group Qualifier against Croatia, which starts on Friday.

In case you did not know.

The Davis Cup qualification tie between India and Croatia will take place in the latter’s home turf. The last time that the two teams played against one another was in 1995, in New Delhi. India won that fixture 3-2.

Heart of the matter.

The Indian team’s decision to exclude the country’s highest-ranked singles player, Sumit Nagal, took everyone by surprise. India’s no 2 Prajnesh Gunneswaran (132) will start the campaign with his singles match against Borna Gojo (277), in the opening round on Friday. On the other hand, Ramkumar Ramanathan will take on former world no 3 Marin Cilic in the second match.

In the Doubles tie, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes will do the honors.

Commenting on the team's changes, non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal said, “Over the last week, both the coach Zeeshan Ali and I saw the players and also what was happening with the new court. He further added, “We felt that as a strategy, this would work out better for us because the court seems to have low bounce and the ball keeps moving. With the strength of our team, we felt this was the best combination to go with.”

What’s next?

It will be interesting to see if India, with experienced players this time around, can upset the former champions, who are also without their highest-ranked singles player, No. 33 in the world, Borna Coric.

Also Checkout: The Davis Cup 2020 Schedule