Asian Games 2023 Badminton: HS Prannoy out of men's team final with back injury

Mithun Manjunath will replace the World Championship bronze medalist.

HS Prannoy, one of India’s top male shuttlers, has been ruled out of the finals of men's team event final at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 due to an injury. The exact nature of the injury is not clear, but it was enough to prevent him from participating in the gold medal match which is scheduled at 2.30 pm against China, the defending champions, on Sunday (September 1st).

Indian men's badminton team secured a historic spot in the Continental Games final, beating the Republic of Korea 3-2 in a tense semi-final match.

It came as a surprise when the team list was announced with HS Prannoy's name missing out. What is known is that the star shuttler is not part of the Indian team for the final due to an injury. The BWF World Championships bronze medalist started proceedings on a bright note winning the first singles match of the semifinals yesterday. The experience of WR-8 shuttler would have been useful for the team, especially against the Chinese in the grand finale.

Mithun Manjunath, 25, will be Prannoy's replacement for the finals. On the other hand, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will not be partnering in the men's doubles section today. Youngster Sai Pratheek has been roped in as the replacement for MR Arjun which could possibly be due to an injury.

Arjun has been going through few injury issues for past few months and has withdrawn from the opening round of Australian Open two-weeks prior to the BWF World Championships.

As per the draw, it will be India's No. 2 Lakshya Sen who will starting the proceedings against Shi Yu Qi followed by the men's doubles match featuring Satwik-Chirag. Kidambi Srikanth unlike the previous tie will move up the order and play the 3rd men's singles match.