NADA RTP Updates: Abhishek Sharma, Axar Patel added to Test pool

Abhishek Sharma and Axar PatelIndia’s T20 World Cup-winning player has been added to the National Anti-Doping Agency’s (NADA) Registered Testing Pool (RTP) for the second quarter of 2026, replacing Mandana and Shreyas Iyer in the updated list.NADA is India’s apex anti-doping body that promotes, coordinates and monitors the fight against doping in sports. It operates in compliance with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) regulations to ensure athletes compete in a clean and fair environment. As part of its responsibilities, NADA conducts doping tests, manages the results and imposes sanctions in the event of violations.RTP is an important part of this system. These include elite athletes, who are required to regularly submit their whereabouts, including details of their location and training plans, so that they can be tested at any time, both inside and outside competition. Athletes must be tested within a designated one-hour window each day, and three failures to comply with these requirements can be considered a doping violation.The latest RTP roster includes 348 athletes across disciplines. The cricketing squad remains largely unchanged and includes big names like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh and Tilak Varma. For the women’s team, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma and Renuka Singh Thakur continued to be selected. There are 14 cricketers in the pool.Athletics continues to dominate the RTP, increasing its number of athletes from 118 to 134. Key figures include obstacle racer Avinash Sable, hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, decathlete Tejaswin Shankar and sprinter Animesh Kujur. Long jumpers Shaili Singh and M Sreeshankar, and discus thrower Tajinderpal Singh Toor are also in the list.Other sports are also well represented. The archery athletes include Deepika Kumari, Rakesh Kumar and would-be archer Sheetal Devi. Hockey players like Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Hardik Singh, Salima Tete, Savita Punia and Navneet Kaur have been included in the list.The badminton team has eight players including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Gayatri Gopichand. There are 22 athletes in the boxing world, including big names like Nikhat Zareen, Nishant Dev, Jaismine Lamboria and Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain. Wrestling is also an important part of the 31-athlete field, including Olympic medalist Aman Sehrawat.The updated RTP reflects NADA’s continued commitment to maintaining transparency and integrity in Indian sports by closely monitoring top athletes across disciplines.