The 26-member Indian team is all set to begin their campaign in the Asian Rugby Championship Division 2 Rugby 15s to be held at Pattaya in Thailand from 20th-26th May, 2018. The India team, led by Sujai Lama of Services, is aiming to better their position in Division 2 to get a promotion to Division 1.
The Asia Rugby Championship is an annual rugby union competition held amongst national rugby sides of Asia. The teams are divided into four divisions. The top division, sometimes referred to as the Tri Nations, includes the top three Asian teams. The winner of this division is recognised as the rugby champion of Asia. The other teams are divided into Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 according to their rankings. Division 3 is further divided geographically, with each of the West, East and South Central divisions including three teams.
India has gone through ups and downs in the tournament. Promotion and relegation occurred number of times but they did not play in Division 1 till date. This year, India is placed with Chinese Taipei and host Thailand. The Indian team has been training hard under Japanese coach Tooru Jinguuji. The team comprises of nine players each from Services and Haryana, three each from West Bengal and Delhi and one each from Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The Team: Sujai Lama (captain), Jitendra Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Rohit Singh Sivach, Parvender Singh, Shokender Balyan, Surinder Singh, Divagar Yadav, Paramjeet Singh, Mohit Khatri, Prince Khatri, Neeraj Khatri, Vikas Khatri, Sourabh Dubal, Deepak Punia, Anil Kumar, Surender Joon, Bhupendra Bokan, Rakesh Lohchab, Nitin Dagar, Gautam Dagar, Puspendu Tudu, Suraj Prasad, Akash Balmiki, Roshan Lobo and Pradeep Jadhav.
