Badminton
Who are in India's squad for the World Junior Badminton Championships?
India will look to increase their medal count at the World Junior Badminton C'Ships as Unnati Hooda, and Sankar Muthusamy leads the pack at the upcoming October event in Spain.
FILE PHOTO: Unnati Hooda in action during a tournament (Source: SAI Media)
Slated to take place from 17th to 30th October, the upcoming World Junior Badminton Championships will see shuttlers from India who belong to the U-19 category taking part in the event that will be held at the Palacio de Deportes de Santander in Spain.
At the World Junior Badminton Championships, India has so far been able to amass 9 medals - 1 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze, placing them 9th on the all-time medal tally list which is dominated by China at the helm, possessing a whopping a 174 to their name.
In 2008, Saina Nehwal had created history by becoming the World Junior Champion when she won gold but after that, no such feat has been repeated by an Indian shuttler at this stage.
To select the squad for the Championships, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) conducted the National Junior Selection Trials at Raipur from 12th to 15th August.
Based on the performance of the players at the trials, the BAI Selection Committee (Juniors) will select the players for the TOPS development group, national camp and international competitions till December 2022, as well.
According to BAI's circular before the trials, the top 3 players from every singles and top 2 pairs from every doubles will be selected to represent India at the World Junior Championships.
With the conclusion of the trials, the top 3 from the singles and top 2 pairs from the doubles are as below and will be expected to lead India's campaign at the World Junior Championships.
Here's India's expected squad for the upcoming World Junior Badminton Championships:
Boys' Singles:
1. Bharat Raghav
2. Sankar Muthusamy S.
3. Ayush Shetty
Girls' Singles:
1. Unnati Hooda
2. Rakshitha Sree S.
3. Anupama Upadhyaya
Boys' Doubles:
1. Arsh Mohammad / Abhinav Thakur
2. Nicholas Nathan Raj / Tushar Suveer
Girls' Doubles:
1. Isharani Baruah / Devika Sihag
2. Shreya Balaji /Srinidhi N.
Mixed Doubles:
1. Samarveer / Radhika Sharma
2. Vighnesh Thathineni / Sri Sai Sravya Lakkamraju
The BAI is expected to confirm this list of the Indian squad for the World Junior Badminton Championships soon, as well.
