Asian Games and Uber Cup: Unnati Hooda makes it to senior team

BAI selects squads for CWG, Asiad, Thomas & Uber Cup

NEW DELHI: The 14-year-old teenage sensation from Rohtak, Unnati Hooda caught the selectors' eyes as she secured a place in the Indian senior squads for the Asian Games and Uber Cup.

Unnati made the grade by finishing third in the women's singles after Aakarshi Kashyap and Ashmita Chaliha, who claimed first and second positions respectively. Unnati is the youngest Indian badminton player to be part of the Asian Games squad.

Following six days of competitions and nail-biting action in the selection trials at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Thursday announced strong Indian contingents to participate in the upcoming Thomas & Uber Cup, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

For the Commonwealth Games, the men's team consists of Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty and B. Sumeeth Reddy while PV Sindhu will lead the women's squad which has Aakarshi, Treesa Jolly, Gayatri P and Ashwini Ponappa.

Sumeet Reddy and Ponappa made the cut into the men's and women's squads respectively for the Commonwealth Games after their top-place finish in the mixed doubles category.

A 10-member women's team for the Asian Games and Uber Cup will consist of PV Sindhu, Aakarshi, Ashmita, and Unnati alongside the top-3 doubles pairs from the trials-Treesa Jolly-Gayatri P, N Sikki Reddy -- Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto and Shruti Mishra.

Sindhu, Sen, Srikanth and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj and Shetty were awarded direct entry into the squads for their world rankings inside Top-15. In-form shuttler HS Prannoy has also been included as part of the automatic selection for his consistently impressive recent form at the international circuit.

Priyanshu Rajawat, who claimed the top spot in the men's singles category, also made his way into the 10-men contingent for the Asian Games and Thomas Cup alongside Sen, Srikanth and Prannoy. The team also has Satwiksairaj and Shetty and the top-2 doubles pairs from the trials-Dhruv Kapila-MR Arjun and Vishnu Vardhan Goud-Krishna Prasad Gariga. IANS

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