Badminton selection trials for Asian Games 2023 to be conducted from May 4 to 7

Final selection trials to pick the Indian squad for the Asian Games scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China will be held from May 4 to 7 at the Jwala Gutta Academy, Telangana, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has announced.

The Asian Games were supposed to be held from September 10 to 25 last year before being postponed due to resurgence of Covid-19 cases. The event will now be organised from September 23 to October 8 this year.

BAI confirmed the selection of H. S. Prannoy, P. V. Sindhu, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand based on their placing in the BWF Top-20 ranking list as on April 18.

Based on the guidelines set by the selection committee in its meeting held on January 3 and completion of the All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament from April 12 to 18 in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, the governing body has announced the list of players for the final selection trials.

Saina Nehwal, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth are among the prominent names mentioned in the participation list for the trials. The deadline to confirm participation for the same is April 28. Format of the trials will be set after the confirmation deadline.

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina had skipped the combined selection trials for Commonwealth Games and Asian Games squads in April last year to manage her workload after returning from three weeks of European events.

World championships medallists Lakshya and Srikanth had automatically qualified for the squad last year but due to poor form, both have dropped out of top 20 and will have to play in the trials.