New Delhi: World Champion PV Sindhu and former World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth will lead a 20-strong Indian badminton squad for next month’s Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) said Thursday.
With World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth pulling out of the event due to knee injury, Srikanth along with 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap and the in-form Lakshya Sen will take the onus of the singles events.
For the two doubles events men’s pairing of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, and Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun have been selected in the team along with Krishna Prasad Garaga.
The women’s team for Uber Cup will be led by Sindhu, who made herself available for the tournament after initially deciding to give it a miss following a timely intervention by BAI president Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The squad will be further bolstered by the presence of former World No.1 Saina Nehwal and Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, who will be helming the doubles department. Youngsters Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod were also included in the 10-member squad.
In Thomas Cup, India has been placed in Group C with the formidable 2016 champions Denmark apart from Germany and Algeria.
In Uber Cup, India finds itself in Group D with the other teams being China, Germany and France. However, the 14-time champions China are yet to confirm their participation.
Sindhu, Saina, Srikanth, Laskhya and women’s doubles pair of Ashwini and Sikki will also participate in the two Super 750 events – Denmark Open (Oct 13-18) and Denmark Masters (Oct 20-25) which will he held after the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals.
The Sports Authority of India had proposed a preparatory camp in Hyderabad which was originally scheduled to start September 7 and conclude September 27 for the event set for October 3-11 in Aarhus, Denmark.
However, the camp was cancelled Thursday after it became clear that players would not get any relaxation on the seven-day mandatory quarantine period and BAI then decided to announce the team.
Squads:
Thomas Cup: Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, Lakshya Sen, Subhankar Dey, Siril Verma, Manu Attri, B. Sumeeth Reddy, MR Arjun, Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga;
Uber Cup:
PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Ashwini Ponnappa, N. Sikki Reddy, Pooja Dandu, Sanjana Santosh, Poorvisha S Ram and Jakkampudi Meghana;
Denmark Open & Denmark Masters: Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal, Lakshya Sen, Ashwini Ponnappa, PV Sindhu and N Sikki Reddy.
PTI