India announces youth boys team to participate in SABA U16 Qualifiers in Dhaka this week

With an eye forward at the FIBA U16 Asia Championship, India's youth boys basketball team will have to contend with their first hurdle this week. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, India will participate in the 2019 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Basketball Championship, from July 3-5. Team India, the tournament's reigning champs from 2017, will compete against Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with the winner getting a spot in the All-Asian FIBA tournament next month.

India's U16 squad will be led by new men's basketball head coach Veselin Matic from Serbia. Kerala’s Pranav Prince, who is a member of the NBA Academy India, has been named the captain of India's U16 team. The Basketball Federation of India released the full team roster on Sunday:

India U16 roster for 2019 SABA U16 Basketball Championship

• Pranav Prince (Kerala) - captain
• Lokendra Singh (Rajasthan)
• Jitendra Kumar Sharma (Rajasthan)
• Digvijay Singh (Rajasthan)
• Achintya Krishna (Karnataka)
• Manoj B M (Karnataka)
• Robin Banarjee (Uttar Pradesh)
• Sahil (Haryana)
• Brijesh Tiwari (Madhya Pradesh)
• Eknoor Singh (Punjab)
• Arjun Unnikrishnan (Kerala)
• Amrendra Nayak (Chandigarh)
• Head Coach: Vaselin Matic
• Assistant Coach: Aman Sharma
• Physiotherapist: Ranjan Sharma

The team has been in training under Coach Matic at the Basketball Academy of Jayprakash Narayan National Youth Center in Bengaluru over the past month.