Mumbai, June 19 -- Manika Batra, the 2018 Asian Games medallist and India's most decorated female paddler, was left out of India's 2026 Asian Games squad and named as a reserve by the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) on Thursday. TTFI's selection committee named a 10-member squad of five men and five women, "selecting players primarily based on world and national rankings," as per a TTFI statement. Although Manika is ranked 51st in the world and is India's No. 2 in women's singles, her absence from the national circuit - and thus the national rankings - meant she lost the selectors' votes. Had Manika been in the top 50, she would have been an automatic pick. World No.45 Sreeja Akula is in the squad despite being 27th in the latest national rankings. "As per the selection criteria, those in the top 50 of the international rankings get automatically selected. For the others, there is weightage given to international and domestic rankings, and points from those are considered," Kamlesh Mehta, TTFI secretary general, told HT. Mehta, who was the convenor of the meeting and did not have voting rights, said the majority of the nine-member selection panel voted for the selected team. Mehta said the TTFI's selection criteria, set in 2023, gives 50% weightage to international performance, 40% to national and 10% to the selection committee's discretion, if needed. Manika does not feature at all in the latest national rankings because she did not participate in domestic events during the season. She is three points behind the world No.50. Asked if there was any scope for changes should she return to the top 50, Mehta said, "That is for the selection committee to decide." Terming her exclusion "deeply disheartening," Manika, in a statement, urged the sports minister and IOA leadership to look into the matter, while also seeking a detailed explanation from the TTFI. "A key concern remains the consistency of application of selection norms. If discretion forms even a small part of the process, then the manner in which it is applied must be transparent, uniform, and clearly recorded. Any variation in its application naturally raises questions of fairness and equal treatment," Manika said. Manika is competing in the WTT Star Contender Ljubljana and won her opening match on Thursday. Over the last few years, Indian TT has had players go to court. Manika dragged the TTFI to court in 2021 over selection issues, which led to the federation being run by a Committee of Administrators. Diya Chitale and Archana Kamath also took the legal route before the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The need for "balance" in the selection system Massimo Costantini, Indian TT's former foreign coach, whose contract ran out last month. "Should we give up some world-class players because they're not performing well in domestic?" Costantini told last month. Squad: Women: Sreeja Akula, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Syndrela Das. Men: G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah, Payas Jain....