A 16-member Indian girls’s softball crew will make its debut on the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The softball competitors will likely be held from September 26 to October 3 on the Shaoxing Baseball & Softball Sports Centre.

India got a wildcard for the continental occasion final 12 months by Softball Asia – the governing physique for the game within the area – based mostly on the Indian girls’s softball crew’s common participation within the Asian championships.

Along with the Indian squad chosen by the Softball Association of India, one standby participant and three reserves have additionally been chosen following the trials held in June and July in Delhi.

The Indian girls’s softball crew final competed on the Women’s Asia Cup 2023 in April, ending final after failing to win a single match.

Ranked 50 on this planet, the Indian girls’s softball crew will likely be up towards a number of the higher-ranked groups on the Asian Games. 

Japan, Chinese Taipei, China, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and debutants Singapore are the groups confirmed for the upcoming softball occasion.

World No. 2 Japan are the reigning champions and have received the Asian Games gold medal in 5 consecutive editions, ranging from Busan 2002. China are the following finest with three high finishes.

At the Asian Games 2023 softball occasion, the groups will likely be divided into two teams. Following the group stage, the highest three groups from every group will advance to the Super Round whereas the fifth and sixth-placed nations will compete for classification.

The first and second-placed groups from the Super Round will play for the gold medal whereas the third and fourth-positioned groups will vie for the bronze medal.

Softball made its Asian Games debut in 1990, when Beijing hosted the quadrennial occasion.

The sport was dropped from the Olympic Programme in London 2012 and Rio 2016 however made a comeback at Tokyo 2020. It received’t, nonetheless, characteristic on the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Indian girls’s softball crew for Asian Games 2023

Team India: Aishwarya Ramesh Puri, Aishwarya Sunil Bodke, Monali Mansing Natu, Swapnali C. Waydnade, Saee Anil Joshi, Anjali Pallikkara, Stephy Saji, Rinta Cheriyan, Mamatha Guguloth, Ganga Sona, Mamta Minhas, Sandeep Kaur, Kumari Manisha, Isha, Swetasini Sabar, Nitya Malvi

Standby: Priyanka Baghel

Reserves: Manisha Kumari, Priti Verma, Chitra