Pre-CWG turmoil stings in Indian women’s TT team exit

On the sidelines, Manika Batra’s head dropped. So did Sreeja Akula’s. Diya Chitale sat still. Reeth Rishya, out there for the deciding match, would soon have tears dripping.

PREMIUM

Indian women’s table tennis team, the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) champions, was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the 2022 CWG on Saturday. Each member of the Indian squad looked stunned at what had happened over the five matches against Malaysia. Yet, given the selection issues and the almost non-existent team training time ahead of the Games, it was hardly surprising.

When the national federation, run by a court-appointed Committee of Administrators, takes a 360 degree turn on selection matters, it’s far from ideal. When for a national training camp, organised days before the tournament, only two of the four-member women’s squad turn up, it’s far from ideal.

Once Archana Kamath—Manika Batra’s doubles partner on the pro tour—was pulled out of the squad and replaced by Chitale, after a successful court petition against her initial exclusion, the focus shifted to getting the players to work together in the camp in Porto and figuring out combinations in the team and doubles events.

For that week-long camp from July 3-10, however, only Chitale and Akula turned up with Rishya missing it due to visa issues while Batra was dealing with a “back issue” that prevented her from going all out, according to India’s CWG contingent coach, S Raman.

“Once we reach there (Birmingham), we’ll have do a lot of doubles activities and combinations so that we can iron out these issues that are in front of us,” Raman had said before leaving for the Games.

That’s just a few days of training sessions in Birmingham for a squad that had three CWG debutants and four players who hadn’t played a lot with each other even at the national level. Batra and Chitale—set to partner in the doubles events later—have never played a competitive match as a pair.

After the loss on Saturday, the coach highlighted the late dash to fix the combinations as a factor. “We did have to figure out the combinations in a short span of time,” Raman said. “We also didn’t adjust to this odd combination (of the Malaysians). That didn’t help us in the first match in doubles (which India lost). That’s where we started on a rough note.”

That’s also where the crux of the issue was. Batra and Kamath, world No 4 in women's doubles, do have some experience as a pair on the tour. The same can’t be said about the other pairings—Chitale-Akula and Akula-Rishya—that was eventually fielded in the team event.

The singles could not make up for it. The preliminary round wins were hardly a test. Malaysia, their quarter-final opponents, had a 556th-ranked Ho Ying whom Batra beat in straight games in the Gold Coast CWG and a teenaged Karen Lyne who had lost to Madhurika Patkar four years ago.

Here, after the opening doubles defeat, Batra was stretched to five games by Ho Ying and was brushed aside 3-0 by Lyne. Akula, having already played a doubles and singles tie, wasn't fielded for the decider which Rishya lost 3-2 to Ho Ying. Batra, the driver of India’s title train in Gold Coast, appeared off the tracks on Saturday.

The individuals and doubles events are still to come, leaving the women to pick themselves up and defend a couple of medals there. “Their emotions are still raw, but they should be able to re-focus again. Time is the best healer,” Raman said.

Experience unrestricted digital access with HT Premium

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.