Sindhu, Saina in India's badminton squad for South Asian Games
Badminton Association of India (BAI) will roll out the big guns in the upcoming South Asian Games (SAG), which is scheduled to be hosted at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong, from February 5 to February 16.
Badminton is one of the 23 sports that will be played in the 228-event long SAG. India won all the seven golds across the men's and women's events that took place in the 2010 SAG, which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and they are the favorites to repeat that feat next month.
The team championship for men and women will be held in a league format between February 6 and 7. The semifinals and the finals will be held on February 8.
The individual events of men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles will be held on February 9 and 10.
Saina Nehwal, who recently pulled out of the Syed Modi tournament due to an injury, will lead India's charge. It will be a test for her fitness, ahead of the upcoming Rio Olympics. PV Sindhu, who recently won the Malaysia Grand Prix, might turn out to be her main opponent in the women's singles event.
The squad:
Men's singles: Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Ajay Jayaram,
Women's singles: Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Ruthvika Shivani, PC Thulasi
Men's doubles: Manu Atri-Sumeeth Reddy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar
Women's doubles: Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa, Sikki Reddy-K Maneesha Coaches: Tan Kim Her, Vijaydeep Singh, Amrish Shinde, Ravikanth Singla.