The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has announced a six-member team for the Davis Cup World Group qualifier tie against Croatia to be played on indoor hard court in Zagreb on March 6 and 7.
The team will have Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanthan for singles. There will be three doubles players in Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes and Divij Sharan.
Rohit Rajpal continues as the captain of the team, even though he was originally supposed to be the skipper only for the tie against Pakistan. Zeeshan Ali will be the coach.
“Once the Davis Cup tie was shifted out of Pakistan and played in Kazakhstan, it was decided that Rohit would be the captain of the team for the year 2020,” clarified Akhouri Bishwadeep, CEO, AITA.
The selection committee meeting was held under the chairmanship of Balram Singh on Thursday, and was attended by Rajpal and Ankita Bhambri.
Zeeshan and Nandan Bal were consulted over phone before the team was finalised.
What happened?
When asked about the withdrawal of the press release a few minutes after it was sent by the AITA, the CEO clarified that the person who had sent the release thought that there was a mistake.
“The selection committee had also decided that Anand Dubey and Yash Pandey would be the physios for the team. But, it was brought to the attention of the committee that Anand could be busy with the Fed Cup team, if it was held the same week,” said Bishwadeep.
Even though a six-member team has been announced, only a five-member team has to be intimated to the ITF. One player would travel as a reserve, and the name would be decided in due course.
Clarity needed
“We could have announced the team later, but some of the players whose availability we had sought, wanted clarity as they needed a three-week period to enter tournaments, if they were not selected for Davis Cup duty. Hence, the team has been announced now,” said the CEO.
