India’s full squad for Badminton World Championships announced

The official Indian squad for the BWF World Championships to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from August 21-27, has been announced by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Tuesday. Women’s singles World No. 5 PV Sindhu and men’s singles World No. 8 Srikanth Kidambi are the only top-10 players in the contingent heading to the prestigious global event.

In the men’s singles section, three out of the four Indians are seeded. Srikanth is eighth, Ajay Jayaram is 13th while the Singapore Open and Thailand Open champion B Sai Praneeth is 15th.

Sameer Verma, who got a last-minute entry into the World Championships, is the only Indian without a seeding in this particular category.

On the women’s side, while Sindhu is seeded fourth in the absence of the World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, the 2015 runner-up Saina Nehwal has been bumped up to 12th.

National champion Rituparna Das and Tanvi Lad round off India’s women’s singles quartet.

In doubles, the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy are the only Indian duo to receive a seeding - 15.

Veteran Ashwini Ponnappa will be representing India in both the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles categories. She and Sikki have made rapid strides on the BWF circuit of late, finishing runners-up at the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold in January.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy will look to build on their initial success

The Lagos International Challenge title has definitely been a shot in the arm for the men’s doubles combine of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who struggled for most of the year. The young pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who usurped Attri-Reddy from the India No. 1 position for a brief period, will also take part.

Pullela Gopichand and Jwala Gutta too will be present as members of the coaching team.

The full squad is as below (current world rank in brackets):

Men’s singles — Srikanth Kidambi (8), Ajay Jayaram (16), B Sai Praneeth (19), Sameer Verma (28)

Women’s singles — PV Sindhu (5), Saina Nehwal (16), Rituparna Das (46), Tanvi Lad (91)

Men’s doubles — Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy (31), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (37), Shlok Ramchandran and MR Arjun (41)

Women’s doubles — Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy (25), Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil (38), Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram (41)

Mixed doubles — Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy (20), B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa (55), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & K Maneesha (76)

Coaches — Pullela Gopichand, Vimal Kumar, Mulyo Handoyo, Tan Kim Her, Jwala Gutta, Pradnya Gadre, Hariawan

Support staff — Arvind Nigam, C Kiran, Johnson (all physios), Srinivasa Rao (masseur).