Scott Fleming, the Indian males’s basketball staff head coach, mentioned reaching FIBA Asia Cup knockouts received’t be a simple job however exuded optimism in inflicting upsets.
India, which is ranked fifteenth in Asia, is positioned in Group ‘C’ together with China (6), Jordan (8) and Saudi Arabia (10). The match begins August 5 in Jeddah.
“Sure, China, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are higher ranked than us. It’s an enormous problem however we’ll go for upsets,” Fleming informed Sportstar on Friday.
The staff skilled on the Nationwide Sports activities Centre at Panaiyur in Chennai, trying to iron out completely different features of the sport. “We’re good in perimeter taking pictures, which we’ll proceed to try this. We’re strengthening our defence and we have now been inconsistent to this point,” Fleming mentioned.
In accordance with Fleming, qualifying for the Asia Cup has change into harder within the final two years. “Earlier we used to beat weaker groups resembling Bangladesh. Now it’s change into powerful. We needed to beat Kazakhstan and Bahrain to qualify this time,” he mentioned.
Indian captain Muin Bek mentioned the staff is aiming to beat Jordan and Saudi Arabia. “Certainly one of Jordan’s finest gamers, Ahmad Al Dwairi (centre) will not be enjoying. And in Saudi Arabia, there aren’t any outstanding imports,” the captain mentioned.
India performed two away matches towards Qatar earlier in July; Bek mentioned that they’ve boosted the staff’s confidence.