India have been clubbed with fancied Australia, among others, in Group ‘A’ of the second Commonwealth Volleyball Championship to be held in Kolkata from July 29 to August 4.
Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Bangladesh are the others teams in the group. Defending champions Canada, who won the inaugural edition in England in 1981, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa constitute Group ‘B’.
The meet is being revived after a gap of 26 years, mainly due to more and more Commonwealth countries joining the FIVB fold.
India had finished third behind champions Canada and second-placed Australia in the inaugural edition. Going into the tournament on the back of their title triumph in the Central Asian Zone championships last month, the hosts will be one of the strong contenders for top honours.
India begin their campaign against Sri Lanka on the opening day of the championship. They take on Australia in their final league match on August 2. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout semifinals. 
Karnataka Volleyball Association secretary K Nandakumar, who has been named manager of the Indian team, announced the 18 probables for the championship here on Sunday.
"The final 12 will be announced in a day or two," said Nandakumar. The team, which has been training at the SAI South Centre here, will leave for Kolkata on Friday morning.
The probables: PS Srikanth, G Pradeep, Vibin M George, Vijesh, Ukkarapandian, Darshan Singh, Kapil Dev, Somnath Girigouda, Sube Singh, Shelton Moses, Mandeep Singh, Jitendra, KP Shaheem, Gurchand Singh, Ankit, Sanjay Kumar, R Sivarajan, Kiran Philip. Coach: GE Sreedharan. Assistant coach: S Karimullah. Manager. K Nandakumar. Trainer: S T Harilal.
Groupings: Group A: Australia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India.
Group B: Canada, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa.