Olympians Manika Batra, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manav Thakkar, and Harmeet Desai will lead a 10-member Indian squad at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships 2026 in London. The tournament, starting at the OVO Arena Wembley, will include separate men’s and women’s competitions known as the Swaythling Cup and the Corbillon Cup. Each tie will consist of a maximum of five singles matches, with teams needing three wins to secure a tie and progress.
A total of 64 teams will participate in both men’s and women’s categories, divided into 16 groups of four teams each. The competition structure involves two preliminary stages before the knockout rounds. The top-seeded teams, including the seven highest-ranked teams and hosts England, will compete in Stage 1a. All eight teams from this stage will advance directly to Stage 2, with their seeding in the knockouts based on group-stage performances.
India, among the remaining teams, will start in Stage 1b. From here, 14 group winners and the six best second-placed teams will move directly to Stage 2. The other eight second-placed teams will compete in an additional playoff round for the final four knockout berths. The knockout phase will kick off from the Round of 32 and conclude with the finals on May 10.
The Indian men’s team, led by World No. 38 Manav Thakkar, has been grouped with Slovakia, Tunisia, and Guatemala in Group 7 of Stage 1b. On the other hand, the women’s team, captained by world No. 49 Manika Batra, will compete in Group 6 against Ukraine, Uganda, and Rwanda. The World Team Championships, which began as an independent competition in 2000, have been predominantly dominated by the People’s Republic of China, with Sweden and Singapore being the only other nations to have interrupted China’s reign by winning the men’s and women’s titles in 2000 and 2010, respectively.
Featuring a blend of experience and emerging talent, the Indian contingent aims to navigate the group stage effectively and present a strong challenge in the knockout rounds.
