India name preliminary squad for FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers

The Indian basketball team will face Kazakhstan and Iran later this month.

After a long break from international basketball for India, the Indian national team is gearing up for the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers Window 1. In the past couple of months, domestic tournaments have been taking place in the national circuit; with the Khelo India Youth Games and AIU National Championship. But now it’s time to see the blue cagers in action again.

The Indian national basketball team is scheduled to play in the upcoming Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers on February 23rd and 26th. India will visit Kazakhstan, the 11th ranked team in Asia, first on 23rd at the Republican Velodrome Saryarka, Astana. Three days later, India will welcome the world’s 27th-ranked Iran national team to KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.

In terms of rankings, India is currently ranked 81st in the world.

India’s preliminary roster for Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers Window 1

Center
Aryan	218 cms / 7’2’’	Age 21	Delhi
Princepal Singh	208 cms / 6’10’	Age 24	Indian Railways
Palpreet Singh Brar	210 cms / 6’11’’	Age 30	Indian Railways
Piyush Meena	206 cms / 6’9’’	Age 24	Rajasthan
Small Forward
Amarendra Nayak	203 cms / 6’8’’	Age 20	Chandigarh
Nawaz Singh Panaich	192 cms / 6’4’’	Age 20	Punjab
Arvinder Singh	200 cms / 6’7’’	Age 21	Indian Railways
Pranav Prince	200 cms / 6’7’’	Age 20	Kerala/Tamil Nadu
Power Forward
Prashant Singh Rawat	202 cms / 6’8’’	Age 23	Uttarakhand/Tamil Nadu
Kushal Singh	195 cms / 6’5’’	Age 18	Uttar Pradesh
Pratyanshu Tomar	203 cms / 6’8’’	Age 23	Karnataka
Kushal Singh	195 cms / 6’5’’	Age 18	Uttar Pradesh
Pratyanshu Tomar	203 cms / 6’8’’	Age 23	Karnataka
Shooting Guard
Sahil	182 cms / 6’0’’	Age 25	Indian Railways
Harsh Dagar	189 cms / 6’2’’	Age 19	Uttar Pradesh Police
Vaisakh K M	190 cms / 6’3’’	Age 21	Kerala
Lokeshwaran Mohan	186 cms / 6’1’’	Age 22	Income Tax
Kanwar Gurbaz Singh Sandhu	185 cms / 6’1’’	Age 24	Punjab
Point Guard
Lalit	188 cms / 6’2’’	Age 25	Haryana
Muin Bek Hafeez	189 cms / 6’2’’	Age 27	Indian Bank
Arvind Kumar Muthu Krishnan	187 cms / 6’2’’	Age 23	Tamil Nadu
P Baladhaneshwar	180 cms / 5’11’’	Age 24	Tamil Nadu
Sahaij Pratap Singh Sekhon	194 cms / 6’4’’	Age 22	Chandigarh / Indian Railways

Early observations

As discussed by Coach Matic in our exclusive interview, the squad’s average age has gone down significantly lately, and that trend continues to be seen in this team as well. Notable absentees are headlined by Amjyot Singh Gill, who did not play the 73rd Senior Nationals for Punjab and has been away from any basketball lately; his return to competing at the National Team is yet unknown.

Senior Nationals MVP P Baladhaneswar continues to feature in the national team; from the ‘Band of Brothers’ youngsters, Harsh Dagar and Kushal Singh have been named in the team and won’t be surprised if they become part of the final roster. Dagar and Singh were the key players for Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded Junior National Championship, with Singh even winning the MVP.

Nawaz Singh Panaich from Punjab averaged 11.9 ppg, 3.1 assists and 5.9 rebounds in the Senior Nationals and is also part of the team. Arvinder Singh from Indian Railways and Vaisakh KM from Kerala have also been named on the preliminary roster.

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