JOIN USDespite the absence of Achanta Sharath Kamal, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) will start favourites when the All India inter-insitutional table tennis championships begin at the Thyagaraj Stadium here on Tuesday.
Sharath will miss the event for the second straight year due to a hip injury.
With the likes of Soumyajit Ghosh, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty and promising Abhishek Yadav in their ranks, PSPB is a formidable outfit.
Similarly their women’s team comprises National champion Mouma Das, Ankita Das, K Shamini, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe and Manika Batra.
Other teams in the fray, the hosts Railway Sports Promotion Board, Airports Authority of India, Central Revenue Sports Board, Air India, Life Insurance Corporation, among others will have to fight hard for the runners-up position in order to qualify for the Senior Nationals.
Teams like AAI and LIC have invested in youth for success while the Railways will largely depend on the experience of Anirban Nandi, K Prabhakaran and Noel Pinto besides the young and exciting Ravindra Kotiyan.
Since losing the crown to PSPB, AAI have brought in Sreeja Akula, Archana Kamath, Maria Rony and Harsha Vardhini to boost the youth girls team while the youth boys squad has promising players in Sabhay Virmani, Vivek Bhargava, Anand Raj and Snehit Suravajjula.
Similarly, Air India has Nishaad Shah, Devdatta Fadnavis and Siddhesh Pande. However, it will be an uphill task for all of them with PSPB fielding a strong composition in Abhishek Yadav, Utkarsh Gupta, Lalrinpuia and Sudhanshu Grover.
The team championships finals in the men and women categories will be played on Thursday, followed by the individual events.