'Gearing up to defend Thomas Cup title': Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty pulling out of their title defence of the Badminton Asia Championships due to an injury to the former raised a concern about the world no. 1 Indian pairing's availability for the Thomas Cup, to be held in Chengdu, China, from April 28-May 5.

But Satwik, in an Instagram post on Monday night, quashed such anxiety for Indian fans, saying he is "gearing up to defend the title at Thomas cup…!"

India are the defending champions of the Thomas Cup, with Satwik and Chirag playing a pivotal role in India's maiden world men's team championship-winning performance in Thailand in 2022.

In the semifinal and final against Denmark and Indonesia, the Indian duo won two marathon matches against Kim Astrup-Mathias Christiansen and Mohammad Ahsan-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo to steer India to the historic team title.

Remarkably, Satwik and Chirag would surge in their world rankings following India's Thomas Cup feat as they went on to win one after another BWF World Tour title, achieving magnificent firsts for Indian badminton.

Last year, they won the Asian Games men's doubles gold along with the men's team silver, scripting history for Indian badminton.

This year, they displayed uncanny consistency and reached three finals since January and reclaimed their world no. 1 ranking first achieved in October 2023.

Though they lost in the final of the Malaysia Open and India Open, Satwik and Chirag reclaimed the French Open title that they won in 2022 for the first time.

Since making a round of 16 exit at the All-England Open, Satwik and Chirag have been out of court.

As the speculation arose around their availability for the Thomas Cup, Satwik took to the social media platform to clarify the state of his injury.

"To all the people wondering why we are not taking the court this week… I had been going through a shoulder niggle for sometime now and having played intense games in the past months it flared up a little," wrote Satwik.

"After consulting my support team I decided to pull out of the Asian championships and use this time to recover. The good news is that I’m already back on court training completely and gearing up to defend the title at Thomas Cup…!

Thanks to all the fans and well-wishers who have supported me and Chirag constantly in this journey to the top, wouldn’t be possible without you all..! See you soon at the TUC finals in Chengdu," Satwik wrote further.