The Indian team will have a new coach in former national champion Ashutosh Singh for the Davis Cup World Group first round tie against Sweden to be played on the indoor hard courts at the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm on September 14 and 15.
After long-time coach Zeeshan Ali quit the job, the All India Tennis Asssociation (AITA) announced the name of Ashutosh, who was in fact involved in the preparation of the team for the last tie against Pakistan. Ashutoh had also served the national tennis team as coach in the Asian Indoor Games.
Sumit Nagal will spearhead the team of Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha and Siddharth Vishwakarma.
The wiry left-hander Siddharth — National champion and National Games champion — has been given a chance following his good spell of results in the professional circuit.
Similarly, bright youngster Aryan Shah has been kept as the reserve player.
Rohit Rajpal who missed the tie against Pakistan owing to personal reasons, will continue to serve as the captain of the team.
The team will have the support of two physios, Yash Pandey and Debashish Das.
Making the announcement, the secretary general of AITA, Anil Dhupar expressed confidence that the team would put up a good performance in Sweden.
The team: Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha, Siddharth Vishwakarma. Res.: Aryan Shah. Captain: Rohit Rajpal; Coach: Ashutosh Singh.