Doha: India's top athletes will need a huge spark of inspiration as they seek to break the shackles of mediocrity and boost the country's measly medal collection in the Asian Games arena when the XVth edition begin at Doha on Friday.
The Indians had managed just 11 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze in the last Asian Games in Busan to finish seventh on the medals table, a marked improvement from the earlier years but still not good enough for a country of billion people.
There have been some notable performers but their heroics have largely been overshadowed by the failure of most of the other athletes to make much of an impression, raising doubts about India's ability to make a mark at the highest level.
India have fielded a very large contingent for the Games this time around but any hopes of a medal would largely depend on the tennis players, shooters, cueists, chess players and athletes.
The tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are the favourites to win the doubles gold while Paes can also make it a double if he can grab another gold with Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gagan Narang, Samresh Jung, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, and Tejaswini Sawant will be India's medal contenders in the shooting arena and going by the performance of the shooters of late, a few medals are a distinct possibility.
The absence of Abhinav Bindra, who has pulled out of the Games because of a back problem, will certainly have a bearing on the medal collection.
India's medal focus will also be on the athletics contingent that had accounted for seven gold, six silver and four bronze in the last Games in Busan.
Despite the form of ace long jumper Anju Bobby George being far from impressive, she is quite capable of springing a surprise.
Quarter miler Pinki Pramanik, shot putter Navpreet Singh, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and the women's relay teams are strong medal contenders but they have to maintain their performance graph to make it to the podium.
In cue sports, Pankaj Advani is the best bet for the country but it remains to be seen if the decision that players can take part in either billiards or snooker really helps the collection of medals from the discipline.
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Archer Jayanta Talukdar has put in some impressive performances of late to become a serious medal prospect in the Games but whether he can bring glory for the country remains to be seen.
The hockey team has an outside chance of winning the gold but the performance of the team in recent tournaments does not evoke much confidence.
The sacking of a few senior players like Gaganajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Viren Rasquinha has only compounded the woes of the team.
In the next two weeks, over 5000 athletes from 45 nations will battle for glory in 39 disciplines with regional powerhouses China, South Korea and Japan expected to dominate the medals tally in what is billed as the biggest Asian Games ever.
With only the opening ceremony scheduled for Friday, the competitive action will unfold on Saturday with the Indians launching their campaign in several disciplines.
Unlike the previous years, there have not been much of a hype surrounding the contingent and the Indian Olympic Association did its bit to ensure a low profile departure for the athletes by not even announcing the final list.
The government did not clear the entire list by the IOA on the ground that some of the squads had no medal chances, forcing some of the teams like football to go on their own cost.
The Doha-bound athletes had an extensive build-up to the Games with a number of exposure trips abroad but it remains to be seen whether the months of training could translate into a medal.
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