BAI announces squad for Junior Asian Badminton C'ship

The girls' team will be spearheaded by the Airport Authority of India's Malvika Bansod who topped the list with 1000 points.

New Delhi: The Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Thursday announced a 23-member Indian squad for the Asian Junior Championship, slated to be held in Suzhou, China between July 20-28.

The boys' singles challenge will be spearheaded by Manipur's Maisnam Meiraba Luwang, who has amassed an impressive total of 1000 points, by virtue of a fine run in the domestic circuit winning consecutive four domestic junior titles as well as both the selection tournaments.

BAI has considered the cumulative ranking points from the two All India Junior Ranking tournaments held in Chennai and Trivandrum in the month of May while selecting the squad, said Ajay K Singhania, General Secretary, BAI.

The girls' team will be spearheaded by the Airport Authority of India's Malvika Bansod who topped the list with 1000 points.

While Meiraba topped the chart in the boys' singles section, the others joining him will be the Tamil Nadu trio of Sathish Kumar, Sidhant Gupta and Sankar Muthuswamy.

In girls' singles, AAI's Malvika Bansod will be joined by Delhi's Ashi Rawat, Unnati Bisht of Uttarakhand and the 2017 U-15 Asian Junior Championships gold medallist Samiya Imad Farooqui from Telangana.

Ishaan Bhatnagar and Vishnuvardhan Goud will be leading India's challenge in the boys' doubles section. Aditi Bhatt and Tanisha Crasto will be the ones to watch in girls' doubles while the in-form pair of K Dingku Sing and Ritika Thakkar will be India's mainstay in the mixed doubles.

At the previous edition held in Indonesia, India won gold after 54 years, courtesy Lakshya Sen who won the Boys' singles title.

The coaching team will be headed by Junior National Coach Sanjay Mishra and former India players Chetan Anand and Arun Vishnu among others.

The Indian team will be attending a camp for fifteen days starting July 3 in Panchkula, Haryana.