Haddadi, Kazemi and Yakhchali spearhead Iran bid at World Cup

TEHRAN (Iran) - Veterans Hamed Haddadi, Arsalan Kazemi, and Behnam Yakhchali are headline names in Iran's training camp ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Iran have also included exciting youth national team star Mohammad Amini on the 15-man list of players that will begin the new phase of workouts under coach Hakan Demir at the Azadi Basketball Hall on August 8.

Iran had previously announced a 27-man preliminary squad that included another leading player of the current generation, Mohammad Jamshidi, yet he is not on the trimmed-down list.

Haddadi, Iran's all-time great center, will be appearing at the FIBA Basketball World Cup for the fourth time. A two-time Olympian (2008, 2021), Haddadi, now 38, showed he remains a force at last summer's FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta, where he averaged 15.8 points and 14.3 rebounds. 

Yakhchali strengthened his reputation as a terrific scorer at the FIBA Asia Cup 2022, averaging a team-best 21.0 points per game. His 19.1 points per game was third highest in the Asia Qualifiers.

Both Haddadi and Kazemi are coming back from injuries.

The 2.00m (6'7") Amini shone last summer at the FIBA U16 Asia Championship and the FIBA U18 Championship. At the former, he averaged 22.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, while at the latter, he averaged 19.2 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per contest

After last summer, he joined Monaco in France and played for their Espoirs team.

Iran have already played a warm-up game against Lebanon, which the Cedars hosted and won, 73-66, on July 26.

Iran have three preparation games coming up against Georgia in Tbilisi on August 12, 13 and 14.

At the World Cup, Iran, No. 22 in the FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, will play in Group G, in Jakarta, Indonesia - the same city that hosted last year's Asia Cup.

They will open their campaign against Brazil and then face Cote d'Ivoire before going up against the defending champions, Spain.

FIBA