With less than a week to go for the Ultimate Table Tennis Season 3, we focus on another new entry into the league – Puneri Paltan Table Tennis.

The team from Pune roped in Parag Agrawal and Francisco Santos in the coach draft to lead their team into the competition as the Indian and Foreign coach respectively. This will be Parag Agrawal’s first association with the UTT, and the experienced youth-coach will look to form a dynamic partnership with Santos.

In the player draft, The Paltan did well to pick veteran Chinese Taipei paddler Chuang Chih-Yuan. The current WR. 28 had a forgettable season with Warriors TTC at his debut outing in Season 2 and will be determined to change that with Puneri Paltan.

He is joined by upcoming Indian paddler Harmeet Desai, who captained RP-SG Mavericks into the semi-finals of Season 2, and young Ronit Bhanja, a winner at the Senior National Championships, 2018 in the men’s doubles, and a semi-finalist in the men’s singles.

The Paltan chose to go with Ayhika Mukherjee, who was a revelation in Season 2, causing a few upsets and turning heads along the way with her wily gameplay and inventive use of paddle-rubber. 

She is joined by the crowd-favourite German paddler Sabine Winter. Sabine is another player from the Mavericks who was picked by the Paltan. Their team was completed by young prodigy Selena Selvakumar, who will represent them in the Youth Girls category.

Puneri Paltan play their first tie against reigning champions Dabang Delhi T.T.C. on the opening day, July 25, at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex in New Delhi.