Ace shuttlers PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, and Kidambi Srikanth are part of the eight-member India squad which will participate in three tournaments in Bangkok, Thailand scheduled to be held in January, next year.
The India squad also consists of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Ashwini Ponappa, and N Sikki Reddy and they will begin their campaign with Yonex Thailand Open from January 12-17, followed by Toyota Thailand Open (January 19-24) and the BWF World Tour Finals which is rescheduled for January 27-31.
The team will also be accompanied by singles foreign coaches Agus Dwi Santoso and Park Tae Sang and doubles coach Dwi Kristiawan, alongside support staff consisting of Kiran Challagundla, Johnson, Evangelina Baddam, and M Srikanth.
“We are very happy to see badminton finally getting back on the court. It gives us hope that tournaments can eventually make a steady comeback in near future. Most of our players haven’t played tournaments in the last seven-eight months however, they have been training to the best of their abilities at the camp,” said Badminton Association of India (BAI) general secretary Ajay Singhania in a statement.
“The purpose of sending a full-strength team in these tournaments so that players can get the much-needed tournament practice ahead of the Olympic qualifiers,” he added.
After the coronavirus outbreak disrupted the sporting world resulting in the cancellation or postponement of a number of tournaments, this will be the first time that top Indian players, apart from Srikanth, will feature in any international tournament for the first time in the post-Covid-19 pandemic time.
Srikanth, former world number one, had made a comeback when he played the Denmark Open in October where he had reached the quarter-finals before getting defeated by Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
