Best Indian squash players: Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal among the finest

Squash was introduced to India by the British Army in the pre-World War I era but it’s only recently that the sport has started to gain mass popularity in the country.

Long regarded as a niche sport for the elite, the perception of squash began changing over the past decade or so, with Indian squash players beginning to find international success.

Today, the likes of Dipika Pallikal, Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa have already become household names in India with a promising batch of youngsters, including Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh, waiting in the wings to take Indian squash to new heights.

With squash set to make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028, Indian squash players will be in focus more than ever before.

Let’s take a look at the best Indian squash players in the history of the sport.

Ritwick Bhattacharya

Though not as recognisable a name as Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal are today, Ritwick Bhattacharya, probably, is one of the most important personalities in Indian squash history.

Bhattacharya was the first Indian squash player to ever break into the top 50 in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) world rankings, reaching a best-ever 38th in November 2006. He was also the first Indian player to ever win a PSA title after clinching the Whakatane Open in New Zealand back in 2003, beating England’s Philip Baker in the final.

Over the course of his career, Ritwick Bhattacharya, a five-time national champion, produced several firsts for Indian squash. Trained by English legend Neil Harvey, Bhattacharya won nine PSA World Tour titles in his career and captained the Indian team to a historic eighth-place finish in the World Team Championships in 2007.

In 2004, Bhattacharya partnered a young Saurav Ghosal to win a silver medal at the World Doubles Championships in Chennai - India’s first-ever medal in the competition. He spent over a decade as India’s top men’s squash player before passing the baton on to Ghosal.

Bhattacharya was also famous off the squash court and was a regular Page 3 celebrity, courtesy of dating Bollywood actress Neha Dhupia before marrying model Pia Trivedi. 

Bhattacharya continues to be an integral part of the Indian squash story even after his retirement. An administrator and coach, he runs the START (Squash Temple and Real Training) academy at Mokashi in Mumbai’s outskirts.

START uses squash to empower tribal children who hail from poor economic backgrounds and Bhattacharya’s students have already started making a mark on the junior circuits both on the domestic and international front. He also coaches the prodigious Anahat Singh, who, despite still being in her teens, has taken the world of squash by storm.

Saurav Ghosal

While Ritwick Bhattacharya have Indian squash a solid identity, established, it was Saurav Ghosal who gave it wings.

Ghosal was the first Indian to be ranked junior World No. 1 and the only squash player from the country to break into the top 10 in senior singles rankings to date, reaching a career-best of world No. 10 in 2019.

A record 13-time national champion, Ghosal won India’s first-ever Asian Games medal in squash after bagging the men’s singles bronze at Doha 2006. The following year, he was conferred with the Arjuna Award - the second-highest sporting award in the country - and consequently became the first Indian squash player to receive the prestigious title.

Ghosal has an astonishing nine medals at the Asian Games to date, which also includes a singles silver at Incheon 2014 - the first-ever squash silver for India at the continental meet. He also led the Indian men’s team to a gold medal that year, accounting for India’s first-ever top podium finish at the Asian Games. He also won the team gold at Hangzhou 2023.

Ghosal is also India’s only singles medallist at the Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze at Birmingham 2022. Saurav Ghosal dispatched former champion James Willstrop of England to bag the podium finish.

He also won the CWG mixed doubles silver and bronze at Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022, respectively, partnering Dipika Pallikal on both occasions.

Ghosal also has an individual Asian Championships gold to his name, from 2019.

Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal also became the first Indian duo to become world doubles champions after clinching the mixed doubles gold at the World Doubles Championships 2022 in Glasgow. Ghosal won a silver in men’s doubles with Ritwick Bhattacharya back in 2004 and a mixed doubles silver with Dipika in 2016.

In 2013, Ghosal was the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals of the World Squash Championships in Manchester.

Dipika Pallikal

If Saurav Ghosal can be considered the torch-bearer for men’s squash in India, Dipika Pallikal has shouldered the responsibility for driving the women’s game forward.

An 11-time champion on the professional circuit, Dipika is one of the most decorated Indian squash players of all time. Her accomplishments include six Asian Games medals, including two singles bronze at Incheon 2014 and Jakarta 2018.

Partnering Harinder Pal Sandhu, Dipika Pallikal also holds the distinction of being the first-ever mixed doubles champion at the Asian Games. She won the gold medal at Hangzhou 2023, the edition which saw mixed doubles squash debut at the continental meet.

Her record at the Commonwealth Games is top notch too. She won the mixed doubles silver at Gold Coast 2018 and bronze at Birmingham 2022. In women’s doubles, Dipika and Joshna Chinappa were the champions at Glasgow 2014 and the silver medallists at Gold Coast 2018.

On the individual front, Dipika won the Asian Individual Championships title in 2017.

A two-time national champion, Dipika Pallikal is married to former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik and is the mother of twins - Kabir and Zian. Dipika, interestingly, moved away from the sport between 2017 and 2020 to focus on her personal life and even built a successful career in interior designing during that period.

After returning to the court in 2022, Dipika Pallikal decided to focus on doubles and perhaps achieved her biggest milestones in her comeback event. She partnered with Ghosal to win the mixed doubles gold and became the first Indian squash world champions. She paired up with Joshna hours later to pocket the women’s doubles gold at the Glasgow meet.

Dipika Pallikal has decided to exclusively focus on doubles after her return. However, Dipika was the first Indian women’s singles player to ever rank in the top 10 in 2012.

Joshna Chinappa

Besides being Dipika Pallikal’s partner in crime during most of her women’s doubles exploits around the globe, Joshna Chinappa has also carved out her own identity as an accomplished singles player.

A five-time Asian Games medallist and two-time podium finisher at the Commonwealth Games, Joshna boasts a singles bronze at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

Joshna Chinappa is also a world doubles champion and has three more bronze medals to her name.

On the singles front, Joshna is a South Asian Games champion from 2016 and beat compatriot Dipika Pallikal in the women’s singles final of the 2017 Asian Individual Squash Championships to become India’s first Asian squash champion. She would later go on to reclaim the title in 2019.

Like Dipika, Joshna has also made it to the top 10 of the women’s singles world rankings, reaching the 10th position in 2016.

Besides the big four and the up-and-coming Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh, Harinder Pal Sandhu, a three-time Asian Games gold medallist, Kush Kumar,  Mahesh Mangaonkar, Tanvi Khanna and Misha Grewal are some other notable names in Indian squash.