In a bold decision, underdogs India on Thursday preferred Ramkumar Ramanathan over No. 1 singles player Sumit Nagal for their clash against top seeds Croatia in the Davis Cup Qualifiers beginning here on Friday. The hosts will be led by world number 37 Marin Cilic and the 2014 US Open champion is the only top-50 singles player in their ranks. The absence of their best-ranked player Borna Coric (33rd) means that Indians can go after their second singles player Borna Gojo, who is yet to win a match in the Davis Cup.

Getting two points from Gojo is very much possible for the visitors, considering that he is placed 277th in the ATP rankings, which is below all three Indian singles players. Nagal (127) is India's best-ranked player and he along with Ramumar Ramanathan (182), and Prajnesh (132) is capable of beating Gojo though they have not competed against him yet. Non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal, while explaining the surprise decision, said that conditions demanded that Ramkumar should play instead of Nagal.