One of the favorites to reach the finals and meet the Chinese team, Germany, just lost to India in the group stage. The Indian Men’s team is not the weakest in the tournament with the recent win in the Commonwealth Tournament, but it is not on the same level as Germany, the Olympic Silver medalist and a strong contender for the 2nd place in Chengdu if not a favorite to take it all.
While the Deutsche squad was weakened by the absence of its key players, it is still a very formidable squad that should be putting up a fight against clear underdogs like India.
The Commonwealth Champions are looking like favorites
The Indian national team is on fire with its second straight win against the opposition in the group. After dominantly winning against Uzbekistan, the team played against Germans with uplifted spirits and went on to win decisively in a 3-1 match where the opposing squad put up respectable resistance but ultimately lost to stronger India.
The star of the Indian national team Sathiyan was the biggest contributor by winning both his games. The 37th paddler in the world was paired against number 36 Benedikt Duda and number 4 Dan Qiu. Despite facing higher ranked opponents, he was superior in both matches and edged close victories against Qiu and Duda.
One of the biggest upsets of the match was the game between Manav Thakkar (ranked No. 142) and Ricardo Walther (ranked No. 74). The Indian managed to win 3-1 against a much higher ranked player and allows the Indian squad to come out on top.
India will face Kazakhstan next
The match against Germany was inarguably the hardest for the Indian squad. Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are much weaker and should not be a challenge for Indians who look like a team that could easily show up in the playoff and reign supreme in the knockout stage. The team had a very good start and maybe the dark horse that will get out of the group as the first seed. It will be quite exciting to watch them!
