Mohali cager Amaan picked for FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

The 17-year-old Mohali cager Amaan Sandhu will be a part of the 12-member senior men’s squad that will represent the country in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. Sandhu is the youngest member of the team.

Sandhu, a student-athlete at the NBA Academy India, was also part of the gold-medal winning Punjab squad in the Khelo India Games. He was one of three Indians to get selected for the Basketball Without Border Global Camp, at the 2020 All-Star Weekend in Chicago.

Besides Sandhu, Punjab’s Princepal Singh, Jagdeep Singh and Amrit Singh have also been selected in the squad announced by the Basketball Federation of India today.

India has been placed in group D alongside Iraq, Bahrain, and Lebanon. The side will play its first match in the qualifiers on February 21 against Bahrain at the Khalifa Sport City Stadium in Isa, while they will take on hosts Iraq at the Al Shaeb Hall in Baghdad a couple of days later.

As per the latest FIBA men’s rankings, India (74) is the second-best team in the group while Lebanon, Iraq, and Bahrain are ranked 55th, 79th, and 113th, respectively.

With Satnam Singh and Amjyot Singh missing from the action due to a three-year ban, the focus will be on the 19-year-old NBA Global Academy student-athlete Princepal during the qualifiers.

Princepal, who recently led Punjab to the gold medal in the U-21 category at the 2020 Khelo India Youth Games in Guwahati, has been at the NBA Global Academy in Canberra for more than a year now.