India’s top stars Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra enter the CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Powered by Kellogg's fray on Saturday, raising a tangible sense of anticipation and excitement here in the city known as the Oxford of the East.

They will, however, be on opposite ends of the table, setting the stage for a tantalising clash between Dabang Smashers and Warriors.

Sharath Kamal will have to dig deep into his bag of experience as his Warriors will be up against two in-form Indian players: Manika and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan (World No. 46). 

“Yes, Dabang has two very strong Indian players. But we are solid in the foreign men’s category in the form of Aruna Quadri and Chih-Yuan Chuang. The mixed doubles match might well prove to be very crucial,”  Warriors captain Sharath Kamal said.

Commonwealth Games double gold medallist Manika, who celebrated her 24th birthday on Friday, is riding high on confidence and is expected to draw big crowds as she leads Dabang Smashers' charge. 

“We have a young team and everyone is so energetic. We are well prepared to give our best tomorrow. We have two good combinations of mixed doubles and the plan is to see what works best for us,” Manika Batra said.

The third tie of the tournament boasts of top quality on the foreign front too, with the Japanese duo of Yoshida Masaki (World No. 27) and Sakura Mori and Puerto Rican Adriana Diaz bolstering the Smashers.

Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan (World No. 15), Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri (World No. 22) and Austria’s Sofia Polcanova (World No. 18) are, however, equally good and will aim to bail out the Warriors.

The Smashers were one of the semi-finalists in Season 1 while Warriors (formerly Yoddhas) had finished fifth.

Date: June 16, 2018 (Saturday)

Venue: Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, Pune

Players to watch out

Men: G Sathiyan (World No 44), Yoshida Masaki (World No. 27), Achanta Sharath Kamal (World No. 47), Chuang Chih-Yuan (World No. 15).

Women: Manika Batra (World No. 80), Sakura Mori (World No. 28), Adriana Diaz (World No. 38), Sofia Polcanova (World No. 18).

The squads 

Dabang Smashers TTC: Men: Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Sanish Ambekar, Yoshida Masaki (Japan), Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium) World No. 52. Women: Manika Batra, Archana Kamath (U18 World No. 12), Sakura Mori (Japan), Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico). Coaches: Sachin Shetty, Andrei Filimon (Romania).

Player retained from Season 1: G Sathiyan.

Warriors TTC: Men: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Ravindra Kotiyan, Chuang Chih-Yuan (Chinese Taipei), Aruna Quadri (Nigeria). Women: Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Sreeja Akula, Sofia Polcanova (Austria), Hana Matelova (Czech Republic) World No. 51. Coaches: Sandeep Gupta, Ferenc Karsai (Hungary)