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The Indian badminton team was bolstered when Saina Nehwal, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy joined the squad ahead of the Thomas and Uber Cup on Wednesday.
The prestigious Thomas and Uber Cup will be held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 9 to 17.
London Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal missed the recently concluded Sudirman Cup in Finland. So did world No. 10 men’s doubles pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
Saina was not part of the mixed team championship Sudirman Cup. Meanwhile, Chirag and Satwiksairaj had to pull out of the biennial event because of the former's health issues.
However, Chirag has now fully recovered from his injury and reached Denmark along with his partner Satwiksairaj and other members of the squad.
The ten-member Indian team, which did duty in the Sudirman Cup, reached Aarhus first as they traveled directly from Finland.
Indian players reach Denmark from Hyderabad in two batches
The rest of the Indian team members reached Aarhus from Hyderabad in two batches. Meanwhile, most of the players landed in Denmark on Tuesday after attending a preparatory coaching camp in Hyderabad. Saina Nehwal, Gayatri Pullela Gopichand and a few other players reached out on Wednesday.
All the players had to carry a negative RT-PCR test report while traveling to Denmark.
The coach of the Indian team, Sanjay Mishra, has confirmed that all the twenty players in the squad have now reached Aarhus.
“We reached Denmark a couple of days ago from Finland. The players who were part of the Thomas and Uber Cup were attending the national camp in Hyderabad. They reached Aarhus in two batches. The second lot, which included Saina, arrived today. It’s nice to have a full 20-member squad at the venue,” said Sanjay Mishra.
Indian coach Mishra added that from Thursday onwards, they will have full practice sessions at the venue to acclimatize to the situation.
Both the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup teams consist of four singles and three doubles pairs.
Tokyo Olympic bronze medal winner PV Sindhu skipped both the Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup as she wanted some rest after the Olympics.
Indian Badminton Squad
Thomas Cup:
B Sai Praneeth
Kidambi Srikanth
Kiran George
Sameer Verma
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
Chirag Shetty
Dhruv Kapila
MR Arjun
Krishna Prasad Garaga
Vishnu Vardhan Goud
Uber Cup:
Saina Nehwal
Malvika Bansod
Aditi Bhatt
Tasnim Mir
Tanisha Crasto
Rutaparna Panda
Ashwini Ponnappa
N Sikki Reddy
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Gayatri Gopichand
Treesa Jolly.
