Lakshya, Akarshi to lead Indian challenge at Badminton Asia Junior Championship

Promising shuttlers Lakshya Sen and Akarshi Kashyap will lead the Indian challenge at the upcoming edition of the Badminton Asia Junior Championship to be played from July 14 to 22 in Jakarta.

The Indian players at a send-off event in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Promising shuttlers Lakshya Sen and Akarshi Kashyap will lead the Indian challenge at the upcoming edition of the Badminton Asia Junior Championship to be played from July 14 to 22 in Jakarta.

The tournament will be played in mixed team format and individual championship.

The mixed team event will be played from July 14 to 17, while the individual competition starts from July 18 onwards.

The tournament, which is in its 21st year of existence, will see the former junior world no.1 Lakshya share responsibilities with young Priyanshu Rajawat who caught the eyes of the selectors during the pre-selection trial tournament held in Tirupur early last month.

Besides world no.9 Lakshya, Amar Farogh and Kiran George will be in the boys’ singles category, while in the absence of Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy, who pulled out from the tournament, Akarshi will be complemented by S Kavipriya in the girls’ single competition.

Young and talented shuttlers Manjit Singh Khwairakpam, Dingku Singh, Vishnuvardhan Goud and Sri Krishna Sai Kumar Podile will drive Indian charge in the men’s doubles category while Simran Singhi, Ritika Thaker, K. Preethi and Shristhi Juppudi will lead the challenge in the girls’ doubles event.

The squad underwent a rigorous 15 days training in Bengaluru under the watchful eyes of the coaches headed by chief junior national coach, Sanjay Mishra.

The squad will also feature players like Edwin Joy, Orijit Chaliha, B Sai Rohit and Akash Chandran in the boys and Nafeesah Sara Siraj, Medha Shashidharan and Dipti Kuity in the girls’ team.

BAI has already picked a comparatively large squad with an intent to increase the bench strength and give exposure to more number of players.

India’s best results so far at the Junior Continental Championship have been in 2011 when India won a team bronze medal. PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma, both have won individual silver medals in 2012 and 2011 respectively and in 2009, Pranav Jerry Chopra and Prajakta Sawant teamed up to win a bronze medal in the mixed doubles category.

The squad will leave for Jakarta on Wednesday.