Harsh Mankad has confirmed that he would be joining the Indian Davis Cup team for the World Group play-off tie against Sweden next week, All India Tennis Association said on Friday.
Mankad, included as a reserve player in the squad, had earlier demanded a guarantee of him playing in the tie from the captain.
But he relented and wrote to AITA Secretary Anil Khanna agreeing to be with the team for the tie scheduled from September 23 to 25, an AITA release here said today.
The Indian team will be captained by Leander Paes with Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj as other members.
As per the Davis Cup rules, only four members form part of the squad but there is allowance to make changes till two hours before the draw is made, usually a day before the tie starts.
AITA has maintained that its selection committee picked a five-member squad so as to give the captain a better chance to assess the player's latest form before he could decide on the final team.
"Over the last few days there was some misunderstanding whereby it was being felt that Harsh [Mankad] may not join the Davis Cup team.
"Both the captain and AITA Secretary [Khanna] had spoken to Harsh and clarified to him that he is part of the five-member squad for the Davis Cup and that the captain will choose the final four members a day before the draw.
"Harsh is completely satisfied with this decision," the release from the AITA said.
