India U-17 Basketball seals berth in FIBA U-18 3*3 World Cup

It will be the first time any Indian side will participate in the global meet of any age-level category.

Indian basketball team for the first time has qualified for the World Cup in any age-level category. Indian U-17 3*3 men's team defeated Chinese Taipei to book a spot at the FIBA U-18 3*3 World Cup to be held next year.

The FIBA U-17 3*3 Asia Cup started on the 13th of October in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia. The men’s section consisted of 18 teams while the women’s section had 17 teams in total. The 6th edition is being held after a gap of three years due to the pandemic.

Japan were the champions when the tournament was last held and was the favourite coming into the Asia Cup. 

Indian men’s team was part of Pool B and the women’s team was part of  Pool D. In the opening group match the men’s team defeated Uzbekistan 21-7 and in the second outplayed the strong New Zealand side 21-11. In the last pool match, India beat Jordan 21-9 to progress to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals were against a tricky opposition Chinese Taipei for the Indian basketball team. India was maintaining a good lead but lost the plot in the end trailing 17-19. The Indian side did not lose hope and fought back hard winning 21-20 to reach the finals and also qualify for the U-18 World Cup.

Unfortunately, India lost the finals to reigning champions Japan in a closely fought battle 17-21 taking the second spot. India was leading by four points at one point in time but Japan came back strongly claiming the title.

The team consisted of Kaushal Singh and Lokhendra who were part of the U-16 Asia Cup where India finished fifth beating higher-ranked teams. Dagar is part of the "team of the tournament" alongside players from Mongolia and Japan at the FIBA U-17 3*3 Asia Cup.