India set to face Iran and Japan in Asian Women's Volleyball Championship 2023
The Asian Women's Volleyball Championship 2023 is scheduled to kick off in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, and will be in action from August 30 to September 6, featuring the Indian women's volleyball team alongside 13 other contending countries.
This championship observes the retrieval of the biennial volleyball event after a four-year break, with the 2021 edition revoked due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notably, the top three teams rising victorious in this championship will attain the much-wanted tickets to the 2025 Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women's World Championship.
The tournament structure, as declared by Olympics.com, will be composed of three stages: the preliminary round, the classification round, and the knockout round.
In the preliminary round, the participating teams have been split into four groups. Pools A and B each include three teams, while Pools C and D will have four teams in action.
India, presently ranked 68th in the world, has been positioned in Pool B alongside current champions Japan and Iran, ranked 8th and 65th, respectively. On the other hand, China ranked 6th, with an impressive 13 titles to their tally, is in Pool D.
The top two teams from each of the four groups in the preliminary round will progress to Pools E and F, while the remaining sides will be slotted into Pools G and H in the classification round, vying solely for their final places.
From Pools E and F, the two top teams will ensure their places in the semi-finals, set to take place on September 5. The third-place match and the highly anticipated final will take place on September 6.
India's recorded performance in the championship saw them finish in seventh place during their debut in 1979. Recently, they attained straight 10th-place finishes in the 2017 and 2019 editions.
12 Indian members ready to shine at Asian Women's Volleyball Championship 2023
Depicting India at the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship 2023 will be a 12-member squad hovered to give their finest on the grand stage.
The week-long contest will unfold across two venues, namely Korat Chatchai Hall and The Mall Korat's MCC Hall.
Indian women's volleyball team:
Jini KS, Maria Sebastian, Nirmal, Shaalini, Saranya, Ezhilmathi, S Soorya, Shilpa, Anusree Ghosh, Minimol, Anagha, and Ananya Das.
The participating teams are split into pools as follows:
- Pool A: Thailand, Australia, Mongolia
- Pool B: Japan, Iran, India
- Pool C: South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, Uzbekistan
- Pool D: China, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Philippines