Saurav Ghosal, a 13-time national champion and world number 13, will lead the Indian men's team at the Asian Team Squash Championship, while 18-time national champion and world number 12 Joshna Chinappa will lead the women's team.
Abhishek Pradhan, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Abhay Singh complete the men's team, while Tanvi Khanna, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Sanya Vats make up the four-member women's team.
The selection was the based on the players' performance in the recently-concluded 77th National Championship. David Palmer, Surbhi Mishra and Dimple Kamalakannan (physiotherapist) are the team officials for the continental tournament.
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Keeping the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games 2022 in mind, the federation has identified Palmer to be an ‘event-based’ coach for the Indian senior team leading up to the major games.
Palmer is a former world champion and a nine-time Commonwealth Games medallist (the most by any squash player). His skills as a coach in both singles and doubles are well-known. The Federation expects his presence to be of major help to the Indian players in preparation for the 2022 Asian and Commonwealth Games.
Palmer 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 Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI). SAI and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports are yet to approve the concept of having 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 Cyrus Poncha, secretary general, SRFI.
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