With BOSM 2026 on the horizon, the BOSM English Press sat down with Aryan Gupta, the captain of the squash team, to discuss the team’s preparations for the fest.
Aryan explained that each squash game consists of three sets during the qualifiers and five sets during the finals, during which the players play to eleven points. The matches are played in two categories, individual and team. For individuals, the games generally follow a knockout format, while the teams play each other in a round-robin tournament. Each team consists of four players, three of whom play the other team in a round each, while the fourth is a substitute.
He mentioned that the squash court had been under renovation until the first week of September, so the team had not gotten many opportunities to practice, but he strongly believed in the quality of the players and knew that they would give their best for BOSM. To that end, Aryan explained that one month before BOSM began, the team brought in their coach for practice, who pushed them to train harder. The team had three slots for practice, Monday to Saturday. Coaching for interested members of the GBM was conducted from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM was for the relatively inexperienced players, while the core team practiced from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
The team has experienced mixed results across the two aforementioned categories. In the previous edition of BOSM, they secured third place in the individuals, while they won both gold and silver in the team category. Aryan mentioned that the team had travelled to IIT Delhi for a practice session with their team, and had finished fourth in IIT Roorkee’s ‘Sangram’.
Talking about this year, Aryan said the team he was most looking forward to playing against was from Hansraj College, DU, as they were a ‘top-quality’ team owing to their ‘national sports quota players’. According to him, the biggest strength of the team was that, even though they had a limited number of players, the skill and quality of the players were ‘sublime’. However, they faced a significant setback as they were yet to receive their inventory for BOSM, and hence had to practice with their personal equipment.
Aryan added that the recruitment process for the squash team was two-fold; they conducted both a fitness test and a gameplay test. He praised the new recruits for being disciplined and highly skilled, saying that they were dedicated to their practice. He mentioned that one of them even beat him in a match. On a parting note, he mentioned that they would open up recruitments again in the following semester, and urged the GBM to work hard and try out for the team.