Sumit Nagal has yet again refused to play for the country in the Davis Cup, putting “unreasonable conditions” for his return even as Sasikumar Mukund on Friday came back to the national squad for the tie against Togo after his suspension was revoked by the AITA Executive Committee. Nagal, who has been struggling on the ATP tour, had pulled out of the tie against Sweden in September citing a back strain. He had also refused to travel to Islamabad for the contest against Pakistan in January-February, saying the grass courts do not suit his style of play.
The All India Tennis Association (AITA) selection panel picked a five-member squad in which Mukund will be the highest-ranked singles player at number 368.
Mukund was serving a suspension and was not part of the tie against Sweden but non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal had a chat with the talented player, who then made himself available for the World Group I Play-off contest on February 1-2 in New Delhi.
“After captain Rajpal spoke with Mukund, his suspension was revoked by the Executive Committee, so he was picked. He is good player and need to be given a chance to wear the India jersey again,” said a source.
It has been learnt that Rajpal, who will continue to lead the Davis Cup team in 2025 season, tried to convince Nagal to return for national duty but he did not respond to the mail in which the players are asked for their availability.
Yuki Bhambri, who had also missed the Sweden tie, has made himself unavailable for the contest.
“I am extremely disappointed with Sumit for not making himself available for this tie. We agreed to all his demands last time also still he has refused national duty which is unacceptable,” Rajpal told PTI.
An AITA source said, “Nagal has put forward some unreasonable demands which can’t be accepted.” Ramkumar Ramanathan (ranked 393) and Karan Singh (473) are the two other singles players in the squad.
In the absence of Bhambri (ranked 48), N Sriram Balaji (65) will lead the doubles team and will most likely partner Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (72), who got his maiden national team call-up.
Four players — Aryan Shah (592), Manas Dhamne, Dakshineshwar Suresh and Yuvan Nandal — will be called to the training camp and two reserve players will be chosen from among them.
“It was on insistence of Nagal that slow hard courts were chosen for the tie but now he has said he won’t play. If he had made his stance clear, captain Rajpal would have opted for grass courts for this tie,” the AITA source said.
AITA secretary General Anil Dhupar, who continues in the post due to a petition challenging the fresh elections, had accused Nagal of deliberately missing the Pakistan and Sweden ties.
“Captain Rajpal has been nice to the players but it’s time that he takes a strong stand against the players, who disrespect the captain’s chair. Even star players like Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi never disrespected the captain despite having a big stature but the behaviour of today’s generation is disgusting,” said a member of the support staff who did not wish to be named.
The AITA selection committee dropped Siddharth Vishwakarma and Niki Poonacha from the squad.
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