The Badminton Association of India (BAI) announced both men’s and women’s teams for the upcoming BWF Thomas and Uber Cup finals 2024, set to be played in Chengdu, China from April 27 to May 5.
A 10-member team for Thomas Cup will have five singles players with Kiran George joining H. S. Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat while Sai Pratheek will be the back-up doubles player to the two first-choice combinations, namely World No. 1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila.
With most of the top players going through a tough Paris Olympic qualification phase in the run up to the tournament, an additional singles player added in the squad.
The squad was decided after an online meeting of the selection committee comprising Chief National coach Pulella Gopichand, former India veterans U. Vimal Kumar, Jwala Gutta, Manjusha Kanwar, Partho Ganguly and Mallika Baruah Sarma.
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The Indian men’s team had created history two years ago in Thailand when it defeated Indonesia 3-0 in the final to clinch its first-ever Thomas Cup crown.
For the Uber Cup, youngsters were given preference, with P. V. Sindhu opting out to prepare for the Paris Olympics.
“The committee felt we needed to have one additional player in the singles while in doubles they have picked top two pairs and Sai Pratheek is selected as an additional doubles player after consultation with Mathias Boe (Danish doubles coach) just in case somebody is not fully fit or needs recovery,” Sanjay Mishra, the General Secretary of BAI, said.
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