Badminton World Tour Finals 2021: PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth headline challenge - Full squad, All you need to know

It's a good time for Indian badminton with the shuttlers packing in some quality and consistent performances on the BWF tour and raking up meaty points. With the Indonesia leg of the BWF tour ongoing - Indian badminton players did decently well in the back-to-back tournaments of the Indonesia Masters 2021 and the Indonesia Open 2021. With regular quarter-final and semi-final runs, seven Indian shuttlers are headed for the year-ending BWF World Tour Finals 2021 that will also be held in Bali, Indonesia from 1st to 5th December, 2021.

This is the first time since the World Tour Finals began in 2018 that India has qualified in four event categories and will be seeing the highest number of shuttlers from the country at the season-ending Finals. Alongside the recurring names of PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, there is also youngster Lakshya Sen and men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, who are in the mix, making it an exciting campaign for India.

Here's the full squad for the BWF World Tour Finals 2021:

1. PV Sindhu - Women's Singles

Reigning World Champion and double Olympic medallist, PV Sindhu has a string of semi-final hattrick runs to pat herself on the back for as she heads into the World Tour Finals. Earlier, the World Tour Finals were known as the BWF Super Series Finals and saw PV Sindhu emerging as the silver medallist in 2017 before going on to claim the title in 2018, defeating Nozomi Okuhara in straight games, 21-19, 21-17. Sindhu will be hoping to repeat that result this year as well and improve on her form as she goes in for the season-ending tournament but she will have to ensure she ties up any loose ends in her game and pose a more invincible front.

2. Kidambi Srikanth - Men's Singles

Although Kidambi Srikanth had missed out on making the cut for the Tokyo Olympics, the former World No. 1 shuttler has been on a good run for the past few months and appeared in semi-finals of the Hylo Open 2021 and the Indonesia Masters 2021. Showing sparks of brilliance, Srikanth has well-established that he is on the comeback run and the World Tour Finals will only provide him a better opportunity to let out that clarion call.

3. Lakshya Sen - Men's Singles

A debuant, and the youngest Indian at that, Lakshya Sen has qualified for the World Tour Finals as well. At 20, the Almora-boy is enjoying a good streak and has delivered impressive performances to crack into the Top 20 of the BWF rankings as well. A semi-finalist at the Hylo Open 2021 and a runner-up at the Dutch Open 2021, Sen has done consistently well this year and made the cut for the World Tour Finals after Chinese Taipei's World No. 4 shuttler Chou Tien Chen suffered a shock loss and failed to qualify. Sen is the next-big-force to watch out for on the Indian badminton circuit and his qualification translates to exciting things for Indian fans.

4. Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy - Women's Doubles

Veterans on the circuit, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are also on the Road to Bali list and have sealed their spot. The women's doubles pair has also been doing well but will definitely need to push harder to make a difference in the season-ending event.

5. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty - Men's Doubles

The final entrant on the list from India - the dynamic men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shettty made a dramatic last-minute qualification for the World Tour Finals. Satwik-Chirag are also enjoying a decent spell and made it till the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open 2021. This is the first time a men's doubles pair from India has qualified for the event and also the first time, India will see representation in the doubles in more than one category. It does spell exciting times ahead with so many Indian shuttlers to watch out for this week at the season-ending tournament.

Here's all you need to know about the BWF World Tour Finals:

Tournament: HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2021

Prize Money: USD 1,500,000

Dates: 1st to 5th December, 2021

Venue: Bali, Indonesia

Telecast/Live Stream: Matches can be followed live on the BWF website and the BWF World Tour Finals 2021 will be telecasted on Star Sports Select 1 from 1st December 2021. The matches can be live-streamed on the Disney+Hotstar app from 1st December 2021, as well.