Greater Noida, October 27: As in the past, India have fielded a big continent, comprising 54 players and divided into four squads for the 2017 ITTF World Junior Circuit India Junior and Cadet Open (Premium), beginning at the Gautam Buddha University here from tomorrow.

However, there is a departure: the level of competition, unlike in the past, will be far better than what it had been so far as nearly a dozen teams are in fray for the five-day competition which would serve as an appetizer for the Continental Youth Olympics Games Qualifiers (Asia) that follows the WJC immediately.

As for the battle royal in team events, singles and doubles— in Junior Boys, Junior Girls, Cadet Boys and Cadet Girls—Indian teams will be wary of the presence of Korean team boys and girls that have come in a good number.

Apart from the medals on offer in team championships, singles, doubles and mixed doubles, the lure of $10,000 in prize money cannot be ignored as players from Thailand, Singapore, UAE, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Australia and USA would like to put their best foot forward and make a mark for themselves. For the lesser teams like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives, the event will be a good opportunity to get soaked in the atmosphere of in an international event and against better team members.

This is what most teams will bank on but for the Indian squads, which are seeded No. 1 in all events, winning the gold will be paramount despite the resistance coming from the Koreans. Team A in Junior Boys has a good combination of players with Junior national champion Manav Thakkar, who became the first Indian to occupy the top spot on the ITTF World Junior Circuit standings with 3,455 points, spearheading the attack. He has a good company in Jeet Chandra and Manush Shah to tackle the Koreans and pushing them to the second position on podium.

As for Junior Girls, yet again India A squad has a very good attack with Selenadeepthi Selvakumar, Archana Kamath and Moumita Datta to take care of India’s need of gold in the section. But they will have to contend with the mixed team of Thailand-Singapore combine apart from the Koreans, the real medal contenders in team events.

Since the WJC is the breeding ground for the up and coming youngsters, the Cadet sections is duly taken care of by the selectors who have mix-matched players based on their rankings. In addition, TTFI has extended a warm welcome into the Team India fold a host of paddlers who have been shining with consistency.

In other words, the Indian teams of B. C and D is equally good and on a given day they can outshine even the best in business, including the A team members, as one had seen in recent times when they competed in tournaments abroad. They have to maintain their intensity with the sole motto of go for gold intact.

The Indians had, in past tournaments, won bagful of medals in home conditions and there will be hardly any change to that script. Most of the team members, along with coach Massimo Costantini, arrived this evening after participating in the ongoing National Ranking Championships (East Zone) in Siliguri.

The draw for the team events were taken out in the presence of teams and divided into three or two groups with three or four teams in the four categories.

Team Draw:

Junior Boys:

Group 1: India A, Jordan, India C and Korea.

Group 2: India B, Australia-Sri Lanka, UAE and Nepal.

Group 3: Thailand-Singapore, UAE A, Kazakhstan and India D.

Junior Girls:

Group 1: India A, Kazakhstan, India B and Korea.

Group 2: Thailand-Singapore, India C, Sri Lanka, India D.

Cadet Boys:

Group 1: India A, Sri Lanka A, UAE.

Group 2: India D, Korea, India B

Group 3: Sri Lanka B, Jordan, India C, Thailand-Singapore

Cadet Girls:

Group 1: India C, Jordan, India D.

Group 2: India A, Korea, India B and Kazakhstan.