Ace players Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa will lead the Indian men’s and women’s squads for the 20th Asian Team Squash Championships to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from March 25 to 29.
While Ghosal is a 13-time national champion and current world No 13, Chinappa has won the national title 18 times and she is ranked 12th in the world.
The other members of the squad announced by the Squash Rackets Federation of India include Abhishek Pradhan, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Abhay Singh in the men’s section, and Tanvi Khanna, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Sanya Vats in the women’s category.
The selection was the based on the players’ performance in the recently-concluded 77th National Championship. Keeping the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games 2022 in mind, the SRFI has appointed David Palmer to be an ‘event-based’ coach for the Indian senior team.
Palmer is a former world champion and a nine-time Commonwealth Games medallist (the most by any squash player). He will be in Chennai from March 16 and will fly out with the team for the championship.
The costs for Palmer will be borne by the SRFI, the federation said in a statement. The Sports Authority of India and Sports Ministry are yet to approve the concept of a short-term ‘event-based’ coach for squash.
“Having David Palmer in our corner is certainly going to be a game changer for Indian squash,” said SRFI secretary general Cyrus Poncha.