Veer Chotrani - One To Watch This Season

From Mumbai to the PSA Tour

Just a disclaimer: there isn't a load of information online about Veer's background. I'm hoping everything is accurate and have tried to fact-check as much as possible. However, if you spot anything that's not true, please let me know and I'll amend it when I put it on our blog!

Anyway, for Veer Chotrani, squash has been part of his life from a very young age.

Growing up in Mumbai, he was introduced to the sport by his father, Manish Chotrani, a former two-time Indian national champion.

Veer began playing squash at around six years old and quickly showed that he had the talent to go a long way.

His junior career certainly backed that up.

Chotrani won the Asian Junior U13 title in 2014 before going on to claim the Asian Junior U19 Championship in Macau in 2019, becoming just the third Indian player to win the title.

That same year, Chotrani moved to the United States to attend Cornell University, where he continued to develop as a squash player alongside his studies.

His college career proved hugely successful, culminating in 2024, when he became the first Cornell player to win the men's individual national championship.

Alongside his college career, Chotrani was beginning to make his mark on the PSA Tour.

He won his first PSA title in 2023 at the QuantiFi LifeTime MetroWest Open before adding titles in Greenwich and Providence later that year.

After graduating from Cornell in 2024, he committed himself to professional squash full-time.

Since then, his progression has continued at an impressive rate.

The player who once dominated the junior courts in Mumbai is now firmly established on the PSA Tour and increasingly looks like one of the key figures in the next generation of Indian men's squash.

Indian Squash Is Building Real Depth

For years, Saurav Ghosal was the name at the centre of Indian men's squash.

He spent much of his career carrying the country's hopes at the very top of the game, becoming the first Indian man to reach the PSA top 10 and eventually climbing as high as World No. 10.

But while Ghosal's achievements have been remarkable, Indian squash is now starting to look like much more than a one-player story.

The last few years have seen a new generation emerge behind him.

Abhay Singh and Velavan Senthilkumar have established themselves among the world's leading players, while players such as Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinder Pal Sandhu have also played important roles at international level.

Ramit Tandon is, of course, another big name to mention!

Perhaps the clearest indication of that growing depth came at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where India won the men's team gold with Ghosal, Abhay Singh, Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinder Pal Sandhu.

Ghosal also took silver in the individual event, while India had already won its first-ever Asian Squash Team Championship the year before.

And that's what makes the current generation so interesting. India no longer has to rely on one standout player to compete at the highest level.

There is now genuine competition within the national setup, with several players capable of progressing deep into major tournaments.

Veer Chotrani is another important piece of that puzzle.

Rather than looking at his rise in isolation, it's perhaps more interesting to see it as part of a broader shift in Indian men's squash, one in which the country is producing more players capable of challenging the established names and pushing each other forward.

Eight Titles and Rising: Veer's Professional Career So Far

While Veer Chotrani's junior and college careers gave him an excellent foundation, it has been his progression on the PSA Tour that has really caught the eye.

Since joining the professional circuit in 2021, he has steadily worked his way up the rankings, turning potential into some seriously impressive results.

His breakthrough came in 2023, when he claimed his first PSA title at the QuantiFi LifeTime MetroWest Open in Massachusetts.

He also added the Greenwich Open and PVD Squash RI Open later that same year to finish the season with three titles.

He continued that momentum into 2024, successfully defending his MetroWest title before winning the White Oaks Cup in Canada.

Then, in 2025, came another step forward. Chotrani won the SRFI Indian Tour event in March before returning to Mumbai later in the year to win the HCL Squash Indian Tour title.

The numbers behind that run are pretty impressive. According to the PSA, Chotrani has won 90 of his 129 matches on Tour, reached 13 finals and lifted eight titles.

Perhaps more importantly, those results have translated into a steady rise up the rankings.

By 2026, he had climbed into the world's top 40, reaching a career high of World No. 38.

He also made his first PSA Silver quarter-final at the Squash in the Land tournament in Cleveland, beating the No. 8 seed, Yannick Wilhelmi, along the way.

Winning eight titles is an impressive achievement in itself, but the next challenge is clear: turning that success on the Challenger Tour into regular results against the very best players in the world.

  Photo credit: Steve Cubbins

What Makes Veer Chotrani So Difficult to Play?

If there's one word that seems to sum up Veer Chotrani's game, it's attack.

In a March 2026 interview with Indian Express, Chotrani himself described his style as attacking, saying, “My game style is attacking and I like to finish the ball.”

And that certainly seems to be the case when you watch him play.

Veer is constantly looking for opportunities to put his opponent under pressure and, rather than simply trying to keep the rally going, he's more than happy to go for the winner when the opportunity presents itself.

His match against Joel Makin at the 2026 New Zealand Open was a perfect display of just that, with Chotrani taking crazy balls in again and again.

I'll be including the highlights of that match in our 'Around the Web' section so you can see for yourself.

Veer has also got plenty of variety in his attacking game.

One of the things that makes him particularly difficult to read is his ability to find angles, opening up the court and creating opportunities that other players might not see.

He's not afraid to take the ball short, and his willingness to use the nick means that even when you think you've covered the obvious options, he can still find a way to finish the rally.

That attacking mindset is backed up by some impressive racket skills and ball control, as you'd probably expect.

His ability to disguise shots and find winners has produced some spectacular moments on the PSA Tour.

I can imagine him being an absolute nightmare to play.

Chotrani is one of those players who makes you feel like you're never completely in control of a rally.

Give him even a small opening, and he's capable of turning it into a winning shot, while his variety of angles and use of the nick give opponents another problem to think about.

That's perhaps why, despite still being relatively young in professional squash terms, Chotrani already has a reputation for producing some seriously entertaining squash.

And if he can continue developing the physical and mental sides of his game alongside those attacking weapons, he could become an even more dangerous player as he moves further up the rankings.

The Matches that Could Define His Next Step

If Chotrani is going to make the jump from being a player around the top 40 to a genuine top-30 contender, the next challenge is going to be turning competitive performances against higher-ranked opponents into regular wins.

We've already seen signs that he's capable of doing exactly that.

At the 2026 Squash in the Land Silver event, that 3-0 win against Yannick was a pretty big statement. He then lost to a very in-form second seed, Leonel Cardenas, in the quarter-finals.

It's worth noting that, since then, Veer has also lost 3-0 against Yannick at the Australian Open.

There have definitely been plenty of competitive encounters against established top players this season.

He pushed Joel Makin to five games at the New Zealand Open, while his run to the Indian Open final included wins over Mohamed Sharaf and Sanjay Jeeva.

He also took France's Baptiste Masotti (World No. 22) to five games in the Sportwerk Hamburg Open 2026. 

These are the sorts of matches that could become increasingly important as Chotrani looks to climb the rankings.

He overcame compatriot Abhay Singh in the PSA World Championships in May in a five-set thriller, which was a huge result since Singh is ranked World No. 24.

Chotrani also had a pretty close 3-1 encounter against England's Declan James, the World No. 23, at the Squash On Fire Open.

He's demonstrated on multiple occasions that he can push and even sometimes beat some of those top-30 players.

To reach that area of the rankings himself, he's going to have to do so more consistently.

There's no denying that he's got what it takes!

  Photo credit: Steve Cubbins

Can He Break Into the World's Top 30?

I certainly wouldn't bet against it.

If you read our newsletter at the start of June, I focused on some PSA Squash Tour players to watch next season, and Veer was one of the first names I thought of when writing that newsletter.

As I've mentioned, we've already seen him start to pick up results against players ranked above him.

The gap between his current ranking of 38 and the top 30 is certainly manageable, but getting there will require more consistency against the players around that ranking bracket.

Chotrani has shown that he can produce big performances; the next step is doing it week after week.

At just 24, there's also plenty of time for him to continue developing.

If he can add slightly more consistency to his length game and take better control of the back of the court, he could be a real threat to reach the top 20 and beyond. 

That, alongside the attacking game and shot-making ability he already possesses, makes the top 30 a very realistic target.

Personally, I think that's potentially just the beginning of how far he can go!

What's Next for Veer Chotrani?

So, what comes next for Veer Chotrani?

Well, I'm going to be ambitious with my predictions here, partly because I genuinely think he can do it and partly because I'm trying to hype him up!

My first prediction is that he breaks into the world's top 30 by the end of the first half of the season.

He's already sitting at a career-high ranking of World No. 38, so the gap isn't huge, and with the level of squash he's producing, I think that next jump is very achievable.

By the end of the season, I'm going one step further and predicting that he will reach the top 25 and record at least one win over a top-10 player.

That might sound outrageous to some of you, but Chotrani has already shown that he's capable of pushing players at those levels, and his attacking style gives him the sort of game that can cause problems for anyone on his day.

Of course, rankings don't always move in a straight line, and plenty can happen over the course of a season.

If he can reach the latter stages (quarters, semis, finals) of some Gold and Platinum events, that would also be superb to see.

And more titles would be another bonus.

But I genuinely think there's a very good case for Veer to make that next jump.

So yes, maybe I'm being optimistic.

But that's what this section is for, and I'm sticking with it.

Top 30 by mid-season, top 25 by the end, and a big top-10 scalp along the way.

Let's see how it goes!

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