Injuries plague India ahead of Asian Basketball Championship

Host India is already without two other important players in forward Vaishnavi Yadav and center Sanjana Ramesh while skipper Pushpa Senthil Kumar is racing against time to be fit for the first game.

BFI President K. Govindaraj presenting the Indian team with kits ahead of the FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship.

Pushpa Senthil Kumar was named the skipper of the Indian basketball team for the FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship which begins here on Sunday.

But the Tamil Nadu center is racing against time to be fit for the first game against Iran on the opening day after having twisted her ankle during practice last Saturday.

Host India is already without two other important players in forward Vaishnavi Yadav and center Sanjana Ramesh — top performers in the 2017 FIBA U16 Asian Women's Championship — because of injuries. Much will then depend on the key duo of Ann Mary Zachariah (center) and Sreekala Rani (forward). 

On Friday, the Basketball Federation of India announced a cash prize of ₹10 lakh for the team if it finishes atop Division-B and earns promotion to Division A for the 2020 edition of this competition.

The team: Pushpa Senthil Kumar (capt.), Arya A.Sreeramaneni, Sakshi Sharma, Dharshini Thirunavukkarasu, Harshitha Bopaiah, Srishti Suren, Ishwarya Janardhan, Sreekala Rani, Gulabsha Ali, Ann Mary Zachariah, Anumaria Shaju, Sudhantika Chakravortty. Head coach: Zoran Visic; Assistant coaches: M.C. Thankachan & Priyanka Bhandari.