For the second consecutive Davis Cup tie, India are relying on doubles specialist N Sriram Balaji to do the singles duty with captain Rohit Rajpal on Friday deciding to play him on the opening day of the World Group I contest against Sweden along with Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Balaji, who competed in singles in Pakistan early this year on grass court, will open the indoor tie with a match against Swedish No. 1 player Elias Ymer (ranked 238) on Saturday.
India No. 1 Ramkumar (ranked 332) will take on Leo Borg (ranked 603), the son of legendary Swede Bjorn Borg in the second singles.
They have not played against each other before on the ATP Tour.
Ramkumar and Balaji will also play the doubles on Sunday against Filip Bergevi and Andre Goransson and the reverse singles. However, the doubles line-up could change if the score is 1-1 at the end of day one.
India's top singles player Sumit Nagal made himself unavailable for the tie due to a back issue while the next best option Sasikumar Mukund was not considered for selection.
Captain Rajpal said Niki Poonacha, the other singles option, was fit but the team management wanted Balaji to play as part of strategy.
Both Balaji and Ramkumar serve big and like to charge the net more often and this is exactly what the captain want them to do on Saturday — play shorter points.
"Niki is fit, the physios have worked hard but the whole purpose is that we do not want to play to their (Sweden) strategy of staying back and play around. We have our own strategy, both these guys like to get in and play from net. We want to take pressure to the other side," Rajpal said after the draw ceremony.
Rajpal said Poonacha was capable of following the same strategy but he has some other plans for him.