NAGPUR: Country’s best upcoming talent will get a chance to showcase their talent in the Junior (U-19) World Badminton Championships scheduled to be held at Bangkok, Thailand from October 23 to November 3.
The junior selection committee of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has finalized the strong 17-member Indian squad for the prestigious World Junior Championships, which is being held once in two years.
The official announcement of the team will be made by BAI in a couple of days.
Out of three U-19 boys singles players, two are from Maharashtra. National junior champion Harsheel Dani, 17, and doubles expert Shlok Ramchandran, 18, belong to Mumbai Suburban district. The teenage duo gets Air India (AI) scholarships.
While Shlok trains at Pullela Gopichand Academy at Hyderbad, Harsheel is a trainee of Uday Pawar. Both Harsheel and Shlok are the members of Gracelands’ Graceful Gulls team, which plays in the Maharashtra Badminton League.
It would be Harsheel’s second World Junior Championships after having represented India in the last edition held in Japan in 2011. However, for most others including Shlok, it will be their maiden appearance at the big stage.
According to sources, the selected Indian team will undergo a week-long coaching camp before they fly to Bangkok on October 21.
For the first few days, team championships will be held before they go all out in the individual events.
Indian U-19 badminton team
Boys singles: Harsheel Dani, Aditya Joshi (both AI), Arun George (Kerala).
Girls singles: Rituparna Das (AP), Reshma Karthik (Karnataka), G Ruthvika Shivani (AP).
Boys doubles: Shlok Ramchandran (AI) and Shyam Prasad (Kerala), K Chaitanya Reddy and Santosh Ravuri (both AP).
Girls doubles: SR Poorvisha (Karnataka) and J Meghna (AP), KP Sruthi and Farah Mather (both Kerala).
Mixed doubles: Santosh Ravuri (AP) and SR Poorvisha (Karnataka), Sanyam Shukla (AI) and J Meghna (AP), Chirag Sen (AI) and Kuhoo Garg (Uttrakhand).
Coaches: S Mahajan, Sudhir Singh. Physio: Yogesh Shetty.
