Why Manika Batra was omitted from India’s table tennis squad for Asian Games 2026
Manika Batra was left out of India’s table tennis squad for the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, with the tournament scheduled from September 19 to October 4, according to the selection announced for the event.
India’s women’s team have won all three of their ties at the Aichi-Nagoya Games to secure a place in the quarter-finals, but match scorecards and team sheets show Batra did not feature in the main event despite being named among the reserves. The Delhi-based paddler is ranked 51st in the world, behind team-mate Sreeja Akula at No. 45, and the article states she is leading Team India at the Asian Games 2026.
Selection for the squad was reportedly determined by a formula that allocated 50% weight to national ranking, 40% to world ranking and 10% to the selection committee’s discretion. Those weightings were cited by sources explaining the composition of the final team.
Although Batra is described as the second-highest-ranked Indian woman on the world list, she does not appear in the national rankings maintained by the Table Tennis Federation of India and has not featured in those domestic rankings since 2023. The article states her absence from the squad is solely due to limited participation in domestic competitions.
Batra has attributed her reduced domestic participation to the rising number of international events and the demands of maintaining performance and fitness, a situation she said constrained her ability to compete regularly on the domestic circuit. She expressed disappointment with the selection decision in a social media post.
In that social media post she also criticised the handling of the previous Asian Games selection, writing: “I also note that during the previous Asian Games selection cycle, players who were outside similar ranking thresholds in both World Ranking and National Ranking were still included in the squad under special considerations and were given special privileges.” The article reports she pointed to multiple international victories as part of her case for selection and has written to the TTFI seeking greater clarity and transparency on the decisions.
The announced men’s squad comprises G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah and Payas Jain, with Ankur Bhattacharjee and Ronit Bhanja named as reserves. The women’s selected players are Sreeja Akula, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Syndrela Das, with Swastika Ghosh and Manika Batra listed as reserves.
Batra won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and was part of the India team that won bronze at the 2024 Asian Championships in Astana; India’s women’s team have progressed to the quarter-finals at the 2026 Asian Games.
