New Delhi, Aug 5:
All the top players, led by Prajnesh Gunneswaran, were on Monday named in the Indian Davis Cup squad that will travel to Pakistan but the AITA selection committee chairman Rohit Rajpal said they will look into the ‘unavailability’ of Sumit Nagal.
There was no scope for surprises with top singles and doubles players being automatic selection.
Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan will lead the singles challenge while Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will make the doubles pair for the grass court tie, scheduled to be held in Islamabad on September 14-15.
Since Nagal has made himself unavailable, citing an injury, the five-member committee chose to retain Myneni, who can play both singles and doubles, as the next best player on ranking charts.
Young and talented Sasi Kumar Mukund was selected as a reserve member.
While Rajpal and Balram Singh sat in the meeting, Zeeshan Ali, Nandan Bal and Ankita Bhambri attended it via tele conference.
Myneni was named in India’s last tie, when the country hosted Italy on grass courts of Calcutta South Club last year in September but he did not get a match in team’s 1-3 defeat.
Myneni last played in September 2018 when India travelled to Serbia for the World Group Play-offs, losing in straight sets with Bopanna to Nikola Milojevic and Danilo Petrovic.
Myneni, 31, won the doubles title at the Chengdu Challenger last week with compatriot Arjun Kadhe but has not got the best of singles results this season with just one semifinal appearance (Jerusalem) in 14 tournaments on the Challenger Tour.
“It was straight forward selection this time. We needed an all-rounder, so Myneni was picked. He has a big serve and he plays well on grass,” Rajpal told PTI.
When asked about Nagal’s unavailability, Rajpal said the young player had written to them that he has twisted his ankle in Germany. (PTI)
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