The 12-man India team was the first of three nations to arrive in the country on Monday afternoon.
The team left New Delhi early Monday morning (Manila time) and the flight lasted for approximately nine hours.
India immediately headed to Novotel in Quezon City and will only be allowed to head to the SMART Araneta Coliseum during training hours and the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier games itself.
The 80th-ranked team in the world has never made a World Cup appearance.
During the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, India failed to advance to the second round after finishing the first phase with a 9-6 record. It was grouped with Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
India qualified for the WCQ after finishing the second round of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers with a 1-1 slate to boot out neighbor Palestine.
The Veselin Matić-coached squad is looking to stun the world with the young lineup it brought.
New Zealand’s developmental player Princepal Singh and NBA Academy’s Pranav Prince headline the pool.
Also called up are veterans 6-foot-10 Amritpal Singh of Punjab Police, 6-foot-4 guard Vishesh Bhriguvanshi of ONGC, and 6-foot-2 point guard Muin Bek Hafeez of Indian Bank.
Completing the squad are 6-foot-8 Aravind Annadurai of Income Tax, 6-foot-6 Manoj Belur Manjunatha of Karnataka, 6-foot-11 Palpreet Singh Brar of Indian Railways,6-foot-3 Rajeev Kumar of SSCB, 6-foot-2 Arvind Kumar Muthu Krishnan of Tanil Nadu, 6-foot-8 Prashant Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand, and 6-foot-4 Sahaij Pratap Singh Sekhon of Chandigarh.
India faces New Zealand on the 24th, Gilas on the 25th, South Korea on the 27th, and New Zealand again on the 28th.
