Joshna Chinappa, Saurav Ghosal to lead Indian challenge in Squash World Cup in Chennai

Chennai, June 12 (IANS) Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal will spearhead India's challenge in the eight-nations Squash World Cup 2023, which will be held here from June 13-17.

The Squash World Cup is being revived after a gap of 12 years as the fourth edition will be held at Express Avenue Mall in Chennai.

Besides India, the other nations in the fray in the five-day Squash World Cup are Australia, Colombia, Egypt, Hong Kong China, Japan, Malaysia and South Africa.

The eight teams have been divided into two pools of four each with Egypt, Australia, Malaysia and Colombia in Pool A while India, Japan, South Africa and Hong Kong China in Pool B.

In the group stage, each team will play three single-legged round-robin ties. The top two teams from each group will progress to the semifinals scheduled on June 16. The remaining teams will play in the classification matches to decide their finishing positions between fifth to eighth. The final will be played on June 17.

India will play their opening pool match against Hong Kong China on Tuesday and are scheduled to play South Africa on Wednesday (June 14) and Hong Kong on Thursday (June 15).

Besides 2014 Asian Games medal winners Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal, the Indian team includes Abhay Singh and Tanvi Khanna.

Australia emerged winner in the inaugural edition of the Squash World Cup in 1996, which was held in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. England bagged the title in 1999 while Egypt won the title in 2011 when the event was last held in Chennai.