A young Indian team, led by world championships silver medallist Amit Kumar, will be hoping to make a notable impact in their debut appearance at the men's freestyle Wrestling World Cup, starting here tomorrow.
The two-day event will witness top-10 wrestling nations, divided into two groups, vying for honours at LA Forum in California.
India are placed in pool A alongside defending World Cup champion Iran, hosts USA, Armenia and Turkey, while the second group has runners-up Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Mongolia and Japan.
Each team will compete against the other four teams in its pool.
The Indian squad includes world championships bronze medallist Bajrang in 61kg category, Asian championships winner Amit Dhankar (70kg) and bronze medallist at junior world's Satyavrat Kadian (97kg) besides Rajneesh (65kg), Praveen Rana (74kg), Pawan Kumar (86kg), and Krishan Kumar (125kg).
India had earned the World Cup berth on the back of its best-ever sixth-place finish in men's free-style at the World Championships in Budapest last year in September.
The championships have been conducted every year since the 1973 tournament.
