India men's national basketball team

The India men's national basketball team represents India in international men's basketball. It is controlled by Basketball Federation of India. The team made significant improvements as the sports of basketball is becoming more popular.

A 1936 founding member of FIBA Asia, India has one of Asia's longest basketball traditions. Throughout its history, Team India qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship 26 times and is placed in the top five in appearances in this tournament. Further, India's basketball team won four gold medals and one silver medal at the South Asian Games and became the most successful team in the South Asian region. India have also won the SABA Championship six times. Team India celebrated its victory at the 2014 Lusofonia Games after they finished the tournament with a 4–0 record as they beat 11–time African Champions Angola in the final.

Its most famous moment came at the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup with the win against home favorites and most successful Asian team China by seven points. This win has been labelled as the biggest basketball win in the nation's history.

History
India appeared at the international stage for the first time ever at the Asian Games in the 1951 edition and the Asian Championships at the 1965 Asian Basketball Championship where it started out as moderately competitive. India became a regular at the event and had their most successful tournament in 1975 when the team even reached the final four.

Plagued by a lack of popularity and support for basketball at home, at times, India faded into oblivion and only had a handful of successful performances. Its most noteworthy tournament appearance was at the 1980 Summer Olympics when the team got its chance to represent Asia due to the cancellations of some teams who took part in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. A few of the world's top basketball powers at that time (such as the United States and Canada) withdrew from the tournament. India finished 12th out of 12 in the Olympics after getting knocked out in the preliminary round by losing all three of their matches and then losing all five of their matches in the Classification round.

While the results did not go India's way one game in particular caught the attention of basketball fans worldwide. India played against the Australian Team, one of the world's top basketball teams. India, which was made up solely of voluntary basketball players competed against the elite team of Australia for almost the whole game until it finally ceded to the Boomers 75–93 after leading at halftime 41–37.

Many Indian players also made headlines while in the Soviet Union as well. Ajmer Singh gained worldwide attention as he was amongst the top 10 shooters there and became the 10th best pivot player in the tournament there. The late 90s saw the emergence of Sozhasingarayer Robinson, the first Indian basketball player who gained considerable international attention. Robinson led India to a surprising victory over South Korea, one of Asia's top teams. In 2005, however, Robinson complained that the structure and support for basketball in India was still mediocre and government officials did not do enough to support the sport. As a protest, he retired from the national team.

At the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship India was coached by former Sacramento Kings head coach Kenny Natt. In 2012, former NBA D-League and U.S. college coach, Scott Flemming, took over the team. Under his supervision, the team won the South Asia Championship in 2014. India had two wins and finished 3 places higher (11th) in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship than in 2011. In 2014, the Young Cagers (as team India is often nicknamed) won the Lusofonia games with wins over Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and Angola in the gold medal game. This was Team India's first title ever in a non-Asian competition. In the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup India pulled off the biggest win in their 80-year history by defeating China on their home court 65–58. The establishment of a professional league was a major step in continuing this recent success the Indian team had experienced. India continued their dominance in South Asia by winning further South Asian Championships in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2021.

Honours
Intercontinental Continental
 * Lusofonia Games
 * Gold Medal: 2014
 * SABA Championship
 * Gold Medal: 2002, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021
 * South Asian Games
 * Gold Medal: 1987, 1991, 1995, 2019
 * Runner-up: 2010

Head coach history
• Lauro Mumar

• 🇮🇳 Major N.K. Singh - 1997

• 🇮🇳 Keshav Kumar Chansoria - 2001

• 🇮🇳 Jay Prakash Singh - 2005

• Zoran Lukić - 2006

• 🇮🇳 Mahender Rathor - 2007

• Aleksandar Bućan - 2007–2010

• 🇺🇸 Bill Harris - 2010–2011

• 🇺🇸 Kenny Natt - 2011–2012

• 🇮🇳 Keshav Kumar Chansoria (interim) - 2012

• 🇺🇸 Scott Flemming - 2012–2015

• 🇮🇳 Sat Prakash Yadav - 2015–2017

• 🇮🇳 CV Sunny (interim) - 2017

• 🇮🇳 Bhaskar Sappaniambalam (interim) - 2017

• 🇺🇸 Phil Weber (interim) - 2017

• Zoran Višić -  2017–2019

• Veselin Matić -  2019–2024

• 🇺🇸 Scott Flemming - 2024–present

2024 roster
Roster for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers in February 2024.

Past rosters
1980 Olympic Games: finished 12th among 12 teams

1997 Asian Championship: finished 11th among 15 teams

Pankaj Malik, B.S. Gowtham, Gagnesh Kumar, Ashok Kumar, N. Appla Raju, Parmindar Singh, Nishant Kumar, Virendar Joshi, Jaldeep Dhaliwal, D. Swaminathan, Srikant Reddy (Coach: Major N.K. Singh)

1999 Asian Championship: not qualified

2001 Asian Championship: finished 8th among 14 teams

Vinay Kumaryadan, J.Murli, B.J. Jadeja, Mohit Bhandari, S.Sridhar, Parmindar Singh, Ranjeet Singh, Austin Almeida, Sozhasingarayer Robinson, Suresh Ranot, M.S. Sabeer Ahamed, Des Raj (Coach: Keshav Kumar Chansoria)

2003 Asian Championship: finished 8th among 16 teams

Sambhaji Kadam, Gagnesh Kumar, Mihir Pandey, S. Gopinath, S.Sridhar, Parmindar Singh, Muraleekrishna Ravindran, Trideep Rai, Sozhasingarayer Robinson, Riyaz Uddin, Snehpal Singh, Des Raj

2005 Asian Championship: finished 12th among 16 teams

Sambhaji Kadam, Shiv Kumar, Mihir Pandey, Anoop Mukkanniyil, Yadwinder Singh, Rajanna Sanjay Raj, Muraleekrishna Ravindran, Trideep Rai, Sozhasingarayer Robinson, Riyaz Uddin, Talwinderjit Singh, Jagdeep Singh (Coach: Jay Prakash Singh)

2007 Asian Championship: finished 15th among 16 teams

Sambhaji Kadam, Shiv Kumar, Ravikumar Krishnasamy, Anoop Mukkanniyil, Roshan Thankachan Padavetiyil, Rajanna Sanjay Raj, Muraleekrishna Ravindran, Trideep Rai, Dilawar Singh, Riyaz Uddin, Lokesh Yodav, Jagdeep Singh (Coach: Aleksandar Bucan)

2009 Asian Championship: finished 13th among 16 teams

Sambhaji Kadam, Talwinderjit Singh, Hareesh Koroth, Harpalsinh Vaghela, Sunil Kumar Rathee, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Prakash Mishra, Vineeth Revi Mathew, Abhilek Paul, Jayram Jat, Dinesh Comibatore, Jagdeep Singh (Coach: Aleksandar Bucan)

2011 Asian Championship: finished 14th among 16 teams

2013 Asian Championship: finished 11th among 15 teams

2014 Asian Games: finished 12th among 16 teams


 * 2015 FIBA Asia Championship     "finished 8th Among 16 qualified teams in Asia "

2016 FIBA Asia Challenge "finished 7th Among 12 qualified teams in Asia "


 * 2017 FIBA Asia Cup

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification

2022 FIBA Asia Cup qualification

Videos

 * India v Japan - Group B - Game Highlights - 2015 FIBA Asia Championship Youtube.com video