Saina Nehwal, Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj join Indian team for Thomas and Uber Cup in Denmark

The Indian badminton team was bolstered when Saina Nehwal, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy joined the squad ahead of the Thomas and Uber Cup on Wednesday.

The prestigious Thomas and Uber Cup will be held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 9 to 17.

London Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal missed the recently concluded Sudirman Cup in Finland. So did world No. 10 men’s doubles pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.

Saina was not part of the mixed team championship Sudirman Cup. Meanwhile, Chirag and Satwiksairaj had to pull out of the biennial event because of the former's health issues.

However, Chirag has now fully recovered from his injury and reached Denmark along with his partner Satwiksairaj and other members of the squad.

The ten-member Indian team, which did duty in the Sudirman Cup, reached Aarhus first as they traveled directly from Finland.

Indian players reach Denmark from Hyderabad in two batches

The rest of the Indian team members reached Aarhus from Hyderabad in two batches. Meanwhile, most of the players landed in Denmark on Tuesday after attending a preparatory coaching camp in Hyderabad. Saina Nehwal, Gayatri Pullela Gopichand and a few other players reached out on Wednesday.

All the players had to carry a negative RT-PCR test report while traveling to Denmark.

The coach of the Indian team, Sanjay Mishra, has confirmed that all the twenty players in the squad have now reached Aarhus.

“We reached Denmark a couple of days ago from Finland. The players who were part of the Thomas and Uber Cup were attending the national camp in Hyderabad. They reached Aarhus in two batches. The second lot, which included Saina, arrived today. It’s nice to have a full 20-member squad at the venue,” said Sanjay Mishra.

Indian coach Mishra added that from Thursday onwards, they will have full practice sessions at the venue to acclimatize to the situation.

Both the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup teams consist of four singles and three doubles pairs.

Tokyo Olympic bronze medal winner PV Sindhu skipped both the Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup as she wanted some rest after the Olympics.

Indian Badminton Squad

Thomas Cup:

B Sai Praneeth

Kidambi Srikanth

Kiran George

Sameer Verma

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Chirag Shetty

Dhruv Kapila

MR Arjun

Krishna Prasad Garaga

Vishnu Vardhan Goud

Uber Cup:

Saina Nehwal

Malvika Bansod

Aditi Bhatt

Tasnim Mir

Tanisha Crasto

Rutaparna Panda

Ashwini Ponnappa

N Sikki Reddy

Gayatri Gopichand

Treesa Jolly.