BAI announces selection trials for CWG, Asian Games, Thomas & Uber Cup

BAI) on Saturday decided to conduct selection trials at the Indira Gandhi Stadium from April 15 to 20 to pick teams for the upcoming major events such as Thomas and Uber Cup, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. The national governing body will also be "finalising probables for the senior core group for the 2024 Olympic Games" during the trials. While the players inside the top 15 in the BWF rankings will be picked directly, the rest of the members will be chosen from the trials which will see the participation of shuttlers ranked between 16 to 50 in the latest world rankings, released on March 29.

It meant double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu (World No. 7), world championships silver and bronze medallists Kidambi Srikanth (World No. 12) and Lakshya Sen (World No.

9) and men's pairing of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (World No. 7) are the only ones assured of a place in the teams for the big-ticket events. Among others, London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, currently ranked 23rd, and Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth, who is ranked 19th, will have to go through the trials.

The Commonwealth Games squad will consist of 10 members with equal number of men and women, while the Asian Games and Thomas and Uber Cup teams will have 20 members each, including 10 men and 10 women. Thomas Cup and Uber Cup are scheduled in Bangkok from May 8 to 15, while Commonwealth Games and Asian Games are slated in Birmingham and Hangzhou, China, from July 28 and September 10 respectively. According to the BAI release, "Players, who are ranked in the Top-16 in singles and Top-8 in doubles in national rankings, based on the domestic performances in the senior ranking tournaments played in Chennai and Hyderabad, and the core group