Indian tennis captain Leander Paes on Thursday sprung a surprise by opting out of the singles and fielding youngsters Harsh Mankad and Prakash Amritraj in the Asia-Oceania group I Davis Cup tie against China beginning in New Delhi on Friday.

Mankad will open the Indian challenge against Sun Peng in the first singles while Amritraj will take on left-handed Wang Yu in the second singles match, according to the draw made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence this morning.

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Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi would play the Chinese pair of Wang Yu and Zhu Beng-Qiang in the doubles match on Saturday.

In the reverse singles on Sunday, Prakash Amritraj will take on Sun Peng while the final match will be played between Harsh Mankad and Wang Yu.