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The Indian badminton team comprising of Olympic hopefuls Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth and former world number one Kidambi Srikanth left for Thailand on Sunday to participate in two Super 1000 events.
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu has also left the UK to travel to Bangkok, where she would be reaching via Doha. The Rio Olympic silver medalist had been in London since October to improve her training and nutrition. The 25-year-old is looking forward to her return to competitive badminton ahead of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
The top Indian shuttlers are set to mark their international return post the COVID-19 pandemic at the Yonex Thailand Open (January 12-17) followed by the Toyota Thailand Open (January 19-24) and the BWF World Tour Finals (January 27-31).
Indian badminton team to arrive in Dubai before traveling to Thailand
The Indian badminton team will arrive in Dubai, as the bio-bubble agreement between India and Thailand is yet to be finalised. The local organisers have laid out strict regulations for shuttlers and officials: a negative RT-PCR test report (72 hours before arrival) and a compulsory 14-day quarantine at the hotel.
The Olympic-bound men’s duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are in the Indian badminton team along with doubles stars Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy. HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap, Sameer Verma, Dhruv Kapila and Manu Attri are also part of the Indian contingent that left Hyderabad on Sunday.
Foreign coaches Agus Dwi Santoso and Park Tae Sang and doubles coach Dwi Kristiawan have also accompanied the Indian badminton team for their upcoming tour.
Parupalli Kashyap took to social media to post a photo of himself with his wife Saina Nehwal from their flight to Thailand.
"First tournament after a long time .. looking forward to the tournament... Thailand open 2021," Kashyap wrote in the caption.
Saina Nehwal will have a challenging campaign at the upcoming Thailand Open, as she faces former Japanese star Nozomi Okuhara in the first round. She is then set to lock horns against the Thailand-born current world number five Ratchanok Intanon.
On the other hand, PV Sindhu is expected to have a decent run in the two Super 1000 events. She plays Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in the first round of the YONEX Thailand Open and then challenge Busanan Ongbamrungphan at the TOYOTA Thailand Open.
