Gandhidham (Gujarat), March 22 A total of 32 teams will compete for top honors when the boys U-15 team competition of the 87th Inter-State Sub-Junior and Cadet National Table Tennis Championships begins here on Monday.
Players from West Bengal are the clear favorites, topping the cumulative standings with 600 points, and carrying the weight of expectations in the absence of a weakened PSPB Academy, the defending champions.
The Bengal squad features a strong core group consisting of Aditya Das, Rishaab Chattopadhyay, Himon Kumar Mondal, and Rudranil Jana.
Tamil Nadu (390 points) and Maharashtra (315) follow as the closest challengers, fielding competitive lineups that could test Bengal's consistency during the event.
Tamil Nadu will rely on the combination of J N Sanjey Arwindh, K Akshay Bhushan, Akash Rajavelu, and Tanmay Raghavan, while Maharashtra's hopes rest on Prateek Tulsani, Nilay Pattekar, Param Bhiwandkar, and Aarav Vora.
However, among the most closely watched sides will be the hosts, Gujarat, who are placed fourth with 182 points but bring significant promise through their lineup of Vivaan Dave, Dev Bhatt, Dwij Bhalodia, and Aarva Singhvi.
Despite its legacy, the Academy team finds itself in seventh place, with a relatively new roster consisting of Sathish Karmeghakannan, Viren Patil, and Dhrityaman Pandey, and may find it difficult to match the depth of the top-ranked teams this time.
The competition format sees all 32 teams divided into eight groups for the initial phase, with seeding determined by the combined national ranking points of each team's top two players.
Alongside the team event, matches in the youth boys U-11 and U-15 categories will run concurrently, with the U-15 doubles event scheduled for the second day and qualification rounds beginning on the third.
Organizers and the competition department aim to conclude the boys U-15 program by the fourth day, after which the focus will shift to the girls' team events and qualification rounds in the U-11 and U-13 singles categories, following a transition day.