The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) on Friday released the first 16-player list for Team China since Team Red and Team Blue merged. The team will play against Syria and Lebanon in the qualifiers of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The Guangdong Southern Tigers contributed the most players (five) to the list: Yi Jianlian, Zhou Peng, Zhao Rui, Ren Junfei and Hu Mingxuan. The Zhejiang Guangsha Tigers sent three: Hu Jinqiu, Sun Minghui and Zhao Yanhao. The Shenzhen New Century Leopards gave two: Yu Dehao and Shen Zijie. Other teams brought no more than one.

When Li Nan was appointed head coach of Team China, he said that he would study possible candidates for the national team with their performances during the 2018-19 CBA season since he was not as familiar with those who used to belong to Team Blue as he was with the players who had played for Team Red.

Nine of the players on the list come from Team Blue and the rest seven are from Team Red. All of them have presented remarkable performance in the new CBA season.

Multiple players missed the list due to injury. For example, Fang Shuo of the Beijing Shougang Ducks is still resting from an ankle sprain. So is Meng Duo of the Southern Tigers after an appendectomy. Even those who were selected did not escape injury. Yi Jianlian rested for 12 days after he sprained his ankle. Guo Ailun from the Liaoning Scale Industry Flying Leopards has already missed two games with a waist problem.

As the host country, China will be automatically qualified for the event but playing the qualifiers can be seen as a good opportunity for the head coach to pick the best and the players to get familiar with each other.

The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup will happen in eight cities in China (Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen) between August 31 and September 15 as 32 teams compete for the title.

The complete list is:

The Guangdong Southern Tigers: Yi Jianlian, Zhou Peng, Zhao Rui, Ren Junfei and Hu Mingxuan

The Zhejiang Guangsha Lions: Hu Jinqiu, Sun Minghui and Zhao Yanhao

The Shenzhen New Century Leopards: Yu Dehao and Shen Zijie

Xinjiang Tianshan R-C Bank Flying Tigers: Abdusalam Abdurishit

The Liaoning Scale Industry Flying Leopards: Guo Ailun

The Fujian SBS Sturgeons: Wang Zhelin

The Zhejiang Chouzhou Golden Bulls: Wu Qian

The Beijing Shougang Ducks: Zhai Xiaochuan

The Shanghai Bilibili Sharks: Dong Hanlin