The Indian men’s volleyball team led by Amit Gulia will start their campaign against China at the Asian Men’s U-23 Volleyball Championship on Saturday at Nay Pyi Taw capital of Myanmar. 16 teams from Asia and Oceania have been divided into 4 Groups in the tournament.
India have been placed in Group D alongside China, Thailand and New Zealand. After their match against China on the opening day, the team will face New Zealand next on the next day itself followed by a match against Thailand on August 5.
The Indian squad consists of Chirag, Gagan Kumar and Shon T John in the attacker’s position apart from captain Amit Gulia. Shikhar Singh and Sonu Kumar Jakhar will be handling the blocker’s duties for the team.
Muthusamy and Saqlain Tariq are the two setters in the squad while Hari Prasad is the sole Libero in the squad. The two Universals in the squad are Ashwin Raj and Himanshu Tyagi. Ten of the twelve players were part of the inaugural edition of the RuPay Pro Volleyball League held earlier this year.
This is only the second appearance of the Indian team in the tournament. Before this, the team participated in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2015. The team then registered victories over Philippines and Qatar in the group stages but couldn’t make it to the Quarter-Final stage of the tournament.
