Aita on sticky wicket after shift in venue

New Delhi, Nov. 5: The shift in venue for the Pakistan tie has brought relief as well as headache for the national tennis federation (Aita), the officials of which are now scratching their heads on team selection. The dynamics of the encounter has changed after the International Tennis Federation shifted the tie out of Islamabad as top Indian players, who had refused to travel to Pakistan, are now interested to compete in the November 2930 tie. The All India Tennis Association officials spent the day discussing whether top players should be asked for their availability or not because if they do so, it will amount to dumping the players, who showed their willingness to travel to Pakistan despite safety concerns. The new captain Rohit Rajpal is keen to have a strong side at his disposal but does not want the players, who expressed their willingness to travel to Islamabad, to miss out.

Veteran Leander Paes, Saketh Myneni, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N. Sriram Balaji had all made themselves available for selection.

Save Paes, none of these players would be able to make it to the team because of their low ranking if top player Rohan Bopanna comes in the fray for selection.

Paes is ranked 96th in the world and Bopanna, who refused the trip to Pakistan, is placed 39th.

Even if Bopanna and Paes are picked as a specialist pair as Divij Sharan (47) is taking a break, Jeevan (ranked 110) and Balaji (137) will miss out.

The Aita selection committee largely goes by the rankings while picking the Davis Cup squad, so ignoring Bopanna would be tough if he is willing to play.

“It’s a tricky situation. It does not feel good to ditch players who were willing to risk lives and travel to Pakistan. How do you leave them out? But if top players are available, India should field a strong team, so it’s a catch 22 situation for Aita,” an official, closely monitoring the development, said.