Kolkata:
Olympian Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee joined national champion Tarundeep Rai in the Indian men's recurve team for this year's Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi from October 3-14.
After the five selection trials held since April, the Archery Association of India on Monday declared a 12-member squad for the mega-event as Mangal Singh Champia, a regular member of the Indian team, missed the cut.
Another Olympian Dola Banerjee will lead Indian charge in the women's recurve category with the team also comprising L Bombayla Devi and promising Deepika Kumari, who is also the national champion.
In compound section, national champions C Srither and Jhanu Hansda will lead the Indian charges in the men's and women's categories respectively.
Exuding full confidence, India coach Limba Ram said they expect to garner at least six out of the eight gold medals up for grabs.
"We have a strong side with a lot of experience. With the advantage of home conditions, we should get at least six gold medals with strong hopes in men's and women's recurve sections," Limba said.
The squads were selected from a total of 64 archers who were pruned to 24 - six in each group - in the core groups' trials held at the Sports Authority of India Eastern Centre at Salt Lake since March 2009.
Meanwhile, the AAI also announced an eight-member squad for the Asian Games, which would not have any compound section and each category will have four archers.
Squads for Commonwealth Games:
Men's Recurve: Taurndeep Rai (Services), Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee (both SPSB)
Women's Recurve: Dola Banerjee, L Bombayala Devi (both Railways) and Deepika Kumari (SPSB); Men's Compound: C Srither, C H Jignas (both Services) and Ritul Chatterjee (Andhra Pradesh); Women's Compound: Jhanu Hansda, Bheigyabati Chanu (Jharkhand) and Gagandeep Kaur (Punjab).
Squads for Asian Games:
Men's Recurve: Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia (Railways)
Women's Compound: Dola Banerjee, L Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Rimil Biruly (SPSB).