World No 19 Marco Cecchinato was the notable absentee from singles in the draw for India’s upcoming Davis Cup tie against Italy which was announced on Thursday. The World Group Qualifier of the revamped format will take place in Kolkata on Friday and Saturday.

The two singles rubbers will be played by Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran against Andreas Seppi and Matteo Berrettini. Ramkumar and Seppi will take on each other in the opening rubber with the order being reversed on the second day.

The 2018 French Open quarter-finalist will however partner with Simone Bolleli in the doubles rubber. They will take on India’s top-ranked pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan on the grass courts of the Calcutta South Club.

One of the reasons for the absence from highest-ranked singles player in the tie could be the surface, which was chosen by non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi to favour India. However, both Seppi (37) and Berrettini (53) are top-100 players while Prajnesh is the highest-ranked Indian at 102 while Ramkumar is world No 133.

India will have a stronger chance in doubles with Maharashtra Open champions Bopanna (37) and Sharan (40) being the higher-ranked pair. The duo had beaten Bolleli, who was partnering Ivan Dodig, in the semi-finals in Pune.

The tie will be the first for India in the shortened format, which will be held in two days with two singles on Friday and a doubles plus two return singles on Saturday. Matches will be played over best-of-three sets in place of gruelling best of five.