Badminton
BAI announces strong Indian men's squad for BWF Thomas Cup 2024
BAI announced a strong squad for the upcoming BWF Thomas Cup, sighting their eyes to defend the title in Chengdu, China.
India won their maiden Thomas Cup title in May 2022 in Thailand.
India will field a strong squad at the upcoming BWF Thomas Cup Finals 2024 with the senior selection committee deciding to have more options in singles considering the hectic schedule of all players this season.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI). on Thursday, announced the teams for the upcoming prestigious tournament to be played in Chengdu, China from April 27 to May 5.
The Indian men’s team had created history two years ago in Thailand when they defeated formidable Indonesia 3-0 in the final to clinch their first-ever Thomas Cup crown.
A 10-member team for the Thomas Cup will have five singles players with Kiran George joining HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, and Priyanshu Rajawat while Sai Pratheek will be the backup doubles player to the two first-choice combinations, namely World No. 1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila.
With most of the top players going through a tough Paris Olympic qualification phase in the run-up to the Thomas Cup 2024, the selectors felt that it was important to have an additional singles player in the squad.
Squad:
Singles: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George
Doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, MR Arjun, Dhruv Kapila and Sai Pratheek
Speaking about the team combination, Badminton Association of India General Secretary Sanjay Mishra said, “The senior selection committee after a lot of discussion has decided the best possible combination for the Thomas Cup team to defend the title. The committee felt we needed to have one additional player in the singles while in doubles they have picked the top two pairs and Sai Pratheek was selected as an additional doubles player after consultation with Mathias Boe (Danish doubles coach) just in case somebody is not fully fit or needs recovery.
The final decision on the Thomas Cup squad was taken after an online meeting of the selection committee that comprises Chief National coach Pullela Gopichand, former India stars U Vimal Kumar, Jwala Gutta, Manjusha Kanwar, Partho Ganguly and Mallika Baruah Sarma.
