K J Kapil Dev to lead Indian men's volleyball team

Top spiker K J Kapil Dev will lead the Indian volleyball men's team in the 15th Asian Games at Doha with Siva Rajan as Libero.

Top spiker K J Kapil Dev will lead the Indian volleyball men's team in the 15th Asian Games at Doha with Siva Rajan as Libero.

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India seeded in the second round along with Thailand will play its first match on December 4 while the event in the Games starts on November 26 for 13-teams in the first round qualification matches.

Of this 13 teams, eight will qualify for the second round ties to be held before the quarterfinals, a press release from K Murugan, Secretary, Volleyball Federation of India, said.

India finished third for bronze when Volleyball was introduced in the Games in 1958 at Tokyo and then went on to improve its performance for a silver in the next Games in Jakarta.

After returning empty handed from the next five Games, India finished behind China and Korea for a bronze in the 1986 Games in Seoul and have not been able to finish among medal winners since then.

In the last Games in Busan, India finished fifth behind Korea, Iran, Japan and China.

Following is the team for Doha Games: K.J.Kapil Dev (Capt.), Yejju Subba Rao, Mandeep Singh, Siva Rajan (Libero), M.N.Vikram, G.Pradeep, Tom Joseph, Jitender Singh, R.Rajeev, Sanjay Kumar, Balwinder Singh and P.S.Srikanth and Augusto Jose Sabbatini (Chief Coach) and Chander Singh (Asst.Coach) and Karumullah (Trainer).