Sat 17 Aug 2024, 23:37:40

India will be sending a 39-member squad to the under-15 and 17 badminton Asia junior championships. The tournament will take place from August 20 to 25 in Chengdu, China. The aim is to create a strong pool of players before next year's world junior championship which India will be hosting next year. The Indian contingent consisting of 39 members was picked after extensive selection trials in Bengaluru. The team will be led by Gnana Dattu and Tanvi Reddy Andluri in the under-17 category. Meanwhile, Shyam Bindiganavile and Tanvi Patri will be the top singles players in the under-15 category.

India bagged one gold, one silver and one bronze medal during the last edition of the BAC championship, which was held in the same city. Bornil Changmai finished at the top of the podium in the U-15 boy's singles podium. After an extensive preparatory camp at the national centre of excellence in Guwahati, the Indian team left for Chengdu on August 17, Saturday. They trained under the watchful eyes of the Indian and foreign coaches for months.

Speaking about the team's chances, Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary Sanjay Mishra said, "India is fielding one of the biggest squads for the Badminton Asia Championships and I am confident that we can win sizeable medals.

"The players and the coaches have put in a lot of work in the

camp and our players are now ready to make a mark in the competition."

Shaina Manimuthu will be the only player to be involved in two events as she will be playing in the girls U-17 singles and girls doubles with Aikya Shetty.

India Squad: U-15

Boys Singles: Shyam Bindiganavile, Shashank Vanamala, Prangan Choudhary, Pushkar Sai

Girls Singles: Tanvi Patri, Shaina Manimuthu, Gatha Suryawanshi, Hithaishree L Rajaiah

Boys Doubles: Rahul Kadapakula/Vedant Pahwa, Shashwat Chaudhary/Shaurya Chaudhary

Girls Doubles: Shaina Manimuthu/Aikya Shetty, Nidhi Atmaram/Selvasamruddhi Selvaprbhu

Mixed Doubles: Sahid Ibrahim Peer/Dheeshitha Singha Gopinath Singh, Kaveyugan KA/Anushka Jennifer AS

India Squad: U-17

Boys Singles: Gnana Dattu TT, Prateek Koundilya, Dev Ruparelia, Abhinav Garg

Girls Singles: Tanvi Reddy Andluri, Adarshini Shri NB, Parul Choudhary, Durga Isha Kandrapu

Boys Doubles: Bjron Jaison/Aathish Sreenivas PV, Abhinav Kandari/Yogansh Singh

Girls Doubles: Annaya Bisht/Angel Punera, Diya Bheemaiah B/Baruni Parshwal

Mixed Doubles: Showrya Kiran J/Keerthy Manchala, Manish Reddy/Deepak Raj Aditi.