The Indian Junior Badminton team has been clubbed alongside Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Hong Kong for the upcoming Badminton Junior Asia Championship. The tournament is all set to commence on July 7 with the culmination taking place on July 16 in Indonesia.
Group C will indeed be the Group of Death as India will have to work its way to the top of the points table at the end of the group stage with Malaysia and Hong Kong being tough nuts to crack.
As far as India’s fixtures in the tournament are concerned, they will be happy to open their campaign against Bangladesh, a match that will be on the relatively easier side. After the game against Bangladesh, team India will face Malaysia and Hong Kong in their last group games of the Badminton Asia Junior Championship.
A total of 16 teams have been divided into four groups that will battle it out for the World Championship title. Group A consists of China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Group B has Japan, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, and the Philippines. Group C, as already mentioned, will be having India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Group D consists of Thailand, UAE, and South Korea.
The Badminton Junior Asia Championship was last held in the year 2019 with Thailand clinching the Gold and Indonesia clinching the Silver Medal. The Bronze medal was shared between China and South Korea.
Team India could only progress to the Quarter-Final of the tournament in 2019 where they were beaten in three straight sets by Indonesia after having beaten Macau and Mongolia in the group stages.
The Indian contingent for the Badminton Asia Junior Championship
Boys' Singles: Lakshya Sharma, Samarveer, Ayush Shetty, Dhruv Negi
Girls' Singles: Rakshitha Sree S, Shriyanshi Valishetty, Tara Shah, Anmol Kharb
Boys' Doubles: Nicholas Nathan Raj / Tushar Suveer, Divyam Arora / Mayank Rana
Girls' Doubles: Radhika Sharma / Tanvi Sharma, Karnika Sree S / Taneesha Singh
Mixed Doubles: Samarveer / Radhika Sharma, Arulmurugan R / Srinidhi N