India's star Amjyot Singh to headline his squad at FIBA 3x3 World Tour Finals in UAE

In a few days, one of the most talented Indian basketball players - Amjyot Singh Gill - will wait for the biggest step in his life at the NBA's D-League draft. But before he heads to the US, Amjyot is making a stopover in the UAE for another basketball extravanganza to add to the growing feathers in his cap.

Amjyot Singh is the marquee name in Team Hamamatsu, the champions from Tokyo who are one of the 12 finalists at the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Finals in Abu Dhabi (UAE), set to be held on October 27-28. Hamamatsu are a team rich with Indian-origin talent, and are even unofficially 'Team Gill' at the tournament, also featuring Inderbir Singh Gill (USA), Bikramjit Gill (Canada), along with Japan's Chihiro Ikeda. The three Indian-origin players completed training at the world-class Jaypee Greens facility in Greater Noida and flew out to Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, October 26.

The FIBA 3×3 World Tour Finals is a very prestigious event that is the equivalent of a World Cup for 3×3 basketball for professional players.

"Playing 5 on 5 (in Japan) was a very good experience as it was my first professional league," said Amjyot, "Playing in 3 on 3 was a whole new game for me but because of Inderbir and Bikram bhai they modified my game and helped me a lot to do what I’m doing now. We are prepared for the World Tour and we think we will do good. We are hopeful of reaching at least the semis and after that whichever team sets up its plays better will win."

Chandigarh's Amjyot (24), a six-foot-nine forward, has signed a contract with the NBA D-League and he will now be eligible for the D-League's draft on October 30th. OVer the last few years, Amjyot has truly made a mark on basketball in India and further around the Asian continent. With his performances for the national team, he has emerged as the best All-Round talent and one of the top superstars of the Indian national team. Abroad, he has excelled for the Tokyo Excellence in the Japanese D-League and made waves in the FIBA 3x3 tour in Tokyo. Most recently, he helped India to their best international basketball performance in 27 years with a 7th place finish at the FIBA Asia Challenge in Iran. In an interview a few weeks ago, Amjyot told me that he aims to be "the first Indian to play in the NBA."

Two Indian teams to play in FIBA 3x3 World Tour in Beijing

Two Indian Men's teams - representing the cities of Bengaluru and Chandigarh - will be taking part in the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Beijing Masters on October 15-16. Each team will feature four players (three starters and a substitute) for this tournament, which will feature a total of 12 3x3 teams competing for the top prize.

'Team Bangalore' is the squad which represented India at the 2015 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers in Colombo earlier this month. By securing the gold medal, they were able to qualify for the Beijing Masters. Despite their nomenclature, the team consists of players from several other states/cities of India outside of Bengaluru.

'Team Chandigarh' is the squad which appeared as 'Punjab Warriors' at the 2014 NBA Jam, and their victory in the National Finals in Pune last December booked their ticket to the Beijing Masters.

The 12 teams are divided into four pools of three teams playing in a round-robin first round against their two respective pool opponents. The top-two placed teams from each pool advance to a standard knock-out round which starts at the quarter-finals stage. The two best teams qualify for the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final, which will be staged in Abu Dhabi on 15-16 October 2015. Apart from this main event, a dunk contest and a three-point shootout contest will also be held. Read more here.

FIBA 3x3 World Tour Beijing Masters Participating Teams

• Pool A: Novisad Alwahda (UAE), Zheng Zhou (China), Bangalore (India).
  
• Pool B: Ljubljana (Slovenia), New Taipei (Chinese Taipei), Jinan (China).
  
• Pool C: Doha (Qatar), Jakarta (Indonesia), Beijing (China).
  
• Pool D: Tokyo (Japan), Wukesong (China), Chandigarh (India).
  

India team rosters

• Team Bangalore: Basil Philip (Kerala), Rajesh Uppar (Karnataka), Siddhant Shinde (Maharashtra), Jeevanantham Pandi (Tamil Nadu).
  
• Team Chandigarh: Khusmeet Atwal, Arshpreet Bhullar, Arshdeep Dhillon, Rajveer Singh.
  

Schedule for India’s league games 15th August (all timings IST)

• 2:40 PM: Chandigarh vs Tokyo (Pool D).
  
• 3 PM: Bangalore vs Zheng Zhou (Pool A).
  
• 4 PM: Bangalore vs Novisad Alwahda (Pool A).
  
• 6 PM: Chandigarh vs Wukesong (Pool D).
  

The FIBA 3x3 World Tour was first launched in 2012. The former winners are San Juan (Puerto Rico, 2012), Brezovica (Slovenia, 2013) and Novi Sad (Serbia, 2014).