Axar Patel and Abhishek Sharma (PTI Photo) India’s T20 World Cup winners Abhishek Sharma and Axar Patel have been added to the National Anti-Doping Agency’s (NADA) Register for Testing (RTP) for the second quarter of 2026, replacing Smriti Mandhan and Shreyas Iyer in the updated list.NADA is India’s apex anti-doping body responsible for promoting, coordinating and monitoring the fight against doping in sports. It operates in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code and ensures that athletes compete in a clean and fair environment. As part of its duties, NADA conducts drug testing, administers results, and enforces penalties in cases of violations.RTP is a key part of this system. It includes elite athletes who are required to regularly submit their whereabouts, including details of their location and training schedules, so that they can be tested at any time, both in and out of competition. Athletes must be available for testing during a designated one-hour window each day, and three failures to comply with these requirements can be considered a doping violation.The latest RTP list includes 348 athletes across disciplines. The cricketing contingent remains largely unchanged and features prominent names like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh and Tilak Varma. From the women’s team, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma and Renuka Singh Thakur continue to be included. There are a total of 14 cricketers in the pool.Athletics continues to dominate the RTP, whose representation has increased from 118 to 134 athletes. Key names include steeplechaser Avinash Sable, hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, decathlete Tejaswin Shankar and sprinter Animesh Kujur. Long jumpers Shaili Singh and M Sreeshankar are also on the list along with discus thrower Tajinderpal Singh Toor.Other sports are also well represented. Archery includes Deepika Kumari, Rakesh Kumar and para-archer Sheetal Devi. Hockey players like Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Hardik Singh, Salima Tete, Savita Punia and Navneet Kaur were featured in the list.The badminton contingent has eight players, including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Gayatri Gopichand. Boxing has 22 athletes with notable names like Nikhat Zareen, Nishant Dev, Jaismine Lamboria and Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain. A match with 31 athletes, including Olympic medalist Aman Sehrawat, also forms a significant part.The updated RTP reflects NADA’s continued focus on maintaining transparency and integrity in Indian sports by closely monitoring top athletes across disciplines.
