China trim Asian Qualifiers preliminary roster to 16 men led by MVP Ding Yanyuhang
BEIJING (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - China trimmed their squad to 16 men heading into the Asian Qualifiers with no less than CBA Most Valuable Player Ding Yanyuhang leading the way.
BEIJING (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - China trimmed their preliminary roster to 16 men heading into the Asian Qualifiers with no less than CBA Most Valuable Player Ding Yanyuhang leading the way.
The 2.01m guard-forward rose to the top of the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2016-2017 season after putting up 24.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game for the Shandong Golden Stars, earning the MVP award in the process. He will be at the spearhead of a Chinese team looking to salvage some pride after they finished outside of the top four of the FIBA Asia Cup 2017. This is a completely new squad for China as they are not bringing any players from their Asia Cup squad, which included big names like Guo Ailun, Zhou Peng and Hu Jinqiu.
| China preliminary squad for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers | |||
| Abudurexiti Abudushalamu | Ding Yanyuhang | Dong Hanlin | Fang Shuo |
| Liu Zhixuan | Meng Duo | Shen Zijie | Shi Yi |
| Sun Minghui | Wang Zhelin | Wang Zirui | Xirelijiang Mugadaer |
| Yu Changdong | Zhai Xiaochuan | Zhao Jiwei | Zhao Rui |
China initially released a 23-man pool a couple of weeks ago, but they have since released several players including veteran international players Sui Ran and Zhang Zhaoxu as well as young big men Fan Ziming and Zhu Rongzhen.
Aside from Ding, expected to lead the Chinese at the Asian Qualifiers are playmaker Zhao Jiwei, versatile forward Zhai Xiaochuan and explosive guard Xirelijiang Mugadaer. Zhao and Zhai were both part of the Chinese team that played at the Rio Olympics 2016, while Xirelijiang was among the top scorers for China Kashgar at the recent FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017.
China are in Group A with Hong Kong, Korea and New Zealand. They tip off their campaign against Hong Kong on 23 November at the Gymnasium of Youth Olympic Games at Nanjing and then face Korea at the Goyang Gymnasium on 26 November.
FIBA