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Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist PV Sindhu and eight other top Indian shuttlers have been selected in the national badminton team for the forthcoming Sudirman Cup. The prestigious mixed team championship will be held from September 26 to October 3 in Vantaa, Finland.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) announced the nine-member team on Thursday and the rest of the members will be added to the Sudirman Cup final squad after the selection trials.
In a circular distributed to the affiliated state units on Thursday, BAI general secretary Ajay Kumar Singhania stated:
“The BAI senior selection committee meeting was held virtually recently and the following players were selected unanimously on the basis of their BWF world rankings and consistent performance at the international level.”
Double Olympic medal winner PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and the women’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy have been named in the women’s section. The provisional five-member men’s side consisted of Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles combination of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
Selection trials to pick up other Indian team members for Sudirman Cup will be held at Hyderabad: BAI
Selection for the rest of the team will be held next week in Hyderabad. According to a BAI circular, the selection committee highly recommended that the 75 players including senior and juniors selected by BAI and SAI earlier be called for the trials.
Selection trials for the men’s singles and women’s singles will be held from August 18 to 22, while the trials for the doubles will be conducted from August 23 to 27. All players have been asked to report to the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad a day prior to their trials. The final squad will be declared by the BAI after the selection trials end on August 27.
India will join the Sudirman Cup as the ninth seed team. India, along with England, Russia and Egypt, have been placed in the 9 to 16 bracket. Eleven-time champions China have been given top billing, followed by four-time champions South Korea and Indonesia.
The Indian team have reached the quarterfinals once, before losing to the eventual champions China in 2011. India made their debut in 2009, 20 years after the tournament began. The inaugural edition was won by Indonesia in 1989.
Sudirman Cup seeding
1. China | 2. Japan | 3. Indonesia | 4. Chinese Taipei;
5/8 - South Korea | Thailand | Denmark | Malaysia;
9/16 - India | England | Canada | Germany | Russia | France | Australia | Egypt.
Indian badminton team for Sudirman Cup
Men
Kidambi Srikanth (AP)
B Sai Praneeth (PSPB)
Lakshya Sen (Uttarakhand)
Chirag Shetty (PSPB)
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (PSPB)
Women
PV Sindhu (AP)
Saina Nehwal (PSPB)
Ashwini Ponnappa (PSPB)
N Sikki Reddy (PSPB)
