Badminton India to host selection trials in May for Asian Games 2023

HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu are among those also selected for the multi-sport event.

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) have announced the dates of the selection trials to pick the squad for the forthcoming Asian Games 2023 in September. The 19th edition of the multi-sport event will take place in Hangzhou, China after being postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The trials will be held from May 4-7 at the Jwala Gutta Academy of Excellence by the Sudar Educational Society. According to a release by the BAI, HS Prannoy (men's singles), PV Sindhu (women's singles), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty (men's doubles) and Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand (women's doubles) have earned automatic qualification into the Indian team for the Asian Games 2023 courtesy their positions in the BWF top-20 rankings as of April 18, 2023.

Others, the release said, will have to go through the selection trials to make the team. A 20-member badminton contingent is expected to be announced for the Asian Games 2023.

The BAI also announced a list of players who have been selected for the final selection trials from May 4-7 based on the All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament that took place from April 12-18 in Haryana and the BWF rankings. The players are as follows:

Men's Singles: Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat, Mithun Manjunath, B.Sai Praneeth, Maisnam Meiraba, Bharat Raghav, Arisal Yadav and Siddhant Gupta.

Women's Singles: Saina Nehwal, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod

Men's Doubles: MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila, Krishna Prasad/Vishuvardhan, Suraj Goala/Pruthvi Roy, Nithin HV/Sai Pratheek, Kushal Raj/Prakash Raj

Women's Doubles: Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautham, Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponnappa, Radhika Sharma/Tanvi Sharma

Mixed Doubles: Rohan Kapoor/Sikki Reddy, Sai Pratheek/Tanisha Crasto, Hariharan/Varshini, Hemagendra Babu/Kanika Kanwal

Priyanshu Rajawat, who clinched his first senior major title in last month's Orleans Masters will eye a place in the Indian squad for the Asian Games as will B.Sai Praneeth, who represented India at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Sen and Srikanth, ranked 20 & 21 respectively in the latest BWF rankings, are favourites to go through to the main squad. Defending national champion Mithun Manjunath is also a contender.

Surprisingly, the national champion in women's singles Anupama Upadhyaya was not named in the final selection trials list for singles. Instead, Saina Nehwal who skipped the trials has been picked. Aakarshi Kashyap, who lost in the national championship final, is also present in the list.

Interestingly, the federation had already picked a squad to represent India at the Asian Games 2023 through the world rankings and selection trials last year before the event was postponed.