Nasser Hussain and Surabhi Date were named to lead the Indian rugby teams (men and women respectively) by Rugby India at Pune and will leave from training base at Balewadi, Pune, on Tuesday for the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Women’s rugby event will be making its debut. Both teams are placed in Pool B and rugby competitions commence from November21.
Captain Hussain said: “We have created a few upsets over the last year and reached an all-time high ranking. The CWG exposure helped us and we should be able to give tough competition to our counterparts.”
Surabhi remarked: “We have been working very hard for an opportunity like this and hope to make our country proud.”
The men's squad: Nasser Hussain (captain), Amit Lochab, Surendra Singh, Hrishikesh Pendse, Gautam Dagar, Pritom Roy, Puneet Krishnamurthy, Rohaan Sethna, Deepak Dagar, Thimmaiah Madanda, Bikash Jena, Kayrus Unwala. Coach- Usaia Biumaiwai, assistant coach Sakaraia Labalaba, physio: Sandeep Chaudhuri
The women’s squad: Surabhi Date, Taposi Nandi, Sutapa Das, Kalpana Das, Sitara Indramohan, Vahbiz Bharucha, Niharika Bal, Neha Pardeshi, Sheetal Maurya, Yogita Marathe, Annapurna Bothate, Bhagyalaxmi Barik. Coach: Elenoa Kunatuba. Physio: Jyoti Purohit, Manager: Leena Bal.
Groupings: Men's: Pool A: Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia. Pool B: Korea Republic, China, Sri Lanka, India.
Women's: Pool A: China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Korea Republic. Pool B: Kazakhstan, Japan, Singapore, India.
