Some of the finest young talents in the country will get a chance to showcase their talent at the upcoming Junior (U-19) World Badminton Championships in Bangkok, Thailand from October 23 to November 3.
A 17-member strong squad has been finalised by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for the bi-annual event, reports TOI.
The BAI is set to make an official announcement on the matter in a few days.
Two of the three boys singles players (U-19) are from Maharashtra including the national junior champion Harsheel Dani, 17, and doubles expert Shlok Ramchandran, 18, who both hail from the Mumbai Suburban district.
The pair is set to receive scholarships for their performance from Air India.
Shlok is amongst the trainees at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. Both Shlok and Harsheel are full-fledged members of the Gracelands’ Graceful Gulls team, which plays in the Maharashtra Badminton League.
This will be Harsheel’s second outing at the World Junior Championships after having represented the nation in the previous edition as well in Japan in 2011. For Shlok though, like many in the rest of the contingent, it will be a first appearance.
The selected players are set to undergo a week-long coaching camp before they depart to Bangkok on October 21.
The team championships will be held first before the singles events.
Indian U-19 badminton team
Boys singles: Harsheel Dani, Aditya Joshi (both AI), Arun George (Kerala)
Girls singles: Rituparna Das (AP), Reshma Karthik (Karnataka), G Ruthvika Shivani (AP)
Boys doubles: Shlok Ramchandran (AI) and Shyam Prasad (Kerala), K Chaitanya Reddy and Santosh Ravuri (both AP)
Girls doubles: SR Poorvisha (Karnataka) and J Meghna (AP), KP Sruthi and Farah Mather (both Kerala)
Mixed doubles: Santosh Ravuri (AP) and SR Poorvisha (Karnataka), Sanyam Shukla (AI) and J Meghna (AP), Chirag Sen (AI) and Kuhoo Garg (Uttrakhand)
Coaches: S Mahajan, Sudhir Singh
Physio: Yogesh Shetty.