The rise of standard in Indian table tennis can be gauged from the fact that the squad is now thinking in terms of at least one gold from the Melbourne Games. It is not surprising, given that they had won two golds in the Commonwealth Championships in Kuala Lumpur in 2006. India retain the same squad.

India’s fortunes have been on the upswing since the women reached the 24-team elite group and the men missed the bus narrowly. The likes of A. Sarath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy, however, amply compensated by making it a 1-2 at the Commonwealth Championships. India also won the team gold, on performances from Roy and Subhajit Saha.

Things don’t look as rosy for the women, though. Unlike the men’s circuit, the women’s circuit abounds with past and present Chinese paddlers. Countries like Wales, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have acquired the services of lesser-known Chinese paddlers, who are as good as any that play in the Commonwealth Games.

The likes of Mouma Das and Poulami Ghatak will be looking for a favourable draw and hoping to avoid the Singapore girls, three of whom are in the top 32, with Jia Wei Li at No. 4.

The men, too, have to overcome the best of Singapore in Gao Ning (No. 34) and Yang Zi (No. 54), besides Canada’s Johnny Huang (No. 64) and England’s Andrew Baggaley, gold medallist in Manchester and Alan Cooke (No. 143).

The Indian men’s team won bronze in the last edition, going down to eventual champions England. Two of the senior members — Chetan Baboor and S Raman — are not around, but Roy had won the only match for India then. India also have Shivaji Dutta, who is making something of a comeback after injury. There is no fifth member, since the TTFI didn’t see anyone fit.

The women’s squad has all five. Apart from Mouma and Poulami, there is Nandita Saha, K. Shamini and Kasturi Chakraborty, who too is making a comeback after being in the doldrums for long.

Ironical really given that the Bengal Table Tennis Association, which has a hand in the grooming of all these players, has ceased to exist.