India's Prajnesh to open against Norway's World No. 2 Ruud in Davis Cup tie

Davis Cup World Group I tie against Norway in Lillehammer. Ramkumar Ramanathan, India's No. 1 player in the tie, will play Viktor Durasovic in the second singles of the indoor hard court tie starting on Friday.

In the doubles rubber on Saturday, Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni will take on Ruud and Durasovic before Ramkumar takes on Ruud in the first of two reverse singles. Despite the presence of Ruud, who has reached two Grand Slam finals this year - at the French Open and the US Open, India start strong favourites. The hosts' hopes rest heavily on the 23-year-old star from Oslo and Durasovic, world ranked 325.

The fact that captain Anders Haseth did not nominate the other two players from the squad - 1211th ranked Lukas Hellum Lilleengen and the unranked Simen Sunde Brathlom - should give an idea of Norway’s prospects. Besides, should the hosts stick to the nomination, Ruud will have the unenviable task of playing back to back matches on Saturday. Yet, from India's point of view, Gunneswaran's pick ahead of Sumit Nagal may have come as a surprise.

Nagal, currently ranked 483, has been on a comeback from a lengthy injury layoff this year and reached the quarterfinals of a clay court Challenger in Germany last month. He exited in the first round of US Open qualifying. Gunneswaran, ranked 335 at the moment, has been going through the grind on the Futures and Challenger circuit in trying to work his way back to the top.

Indian captain Rotit Rajpal said picking Gunneswaran was a strategic decision. "We have a strategy in place. We felt that having a left-hander was a good choice on the first day," Rajpal said after the draw at the Hakons Hall.