The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has announced that they will hold the selection trials for the upcoming Asian Games at the Jwala Gutta Academy in Hyderabad from May 4-7, 2023. The 2021 World Championship medallists, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, will be up against their young challengers at the trials.
In the last year, the BAI has been conducting selection trials for major team championships, with top-20 ranked players in the BWF world ranking being picked directly.
The Asian Games in Hangzhou, China to be played from September 23-October 8, 2023 will have separate team championships for men and women followed by individual events in which India can have a maximum of two entries per event.
The selection trials will have nine men’s singles players and eight women’s singles players competing for three spots each, with four entries in men’s and mixed doubles and three in women’s doubles.
The BAI stated in a media release that “the selectors have proposed to pick one pair each for men’s and women’s doubles and two mixed doubles combinations through a round-robin tournament format to decide the final standings.”
The Selection Trials will follow the below format:
Men’s and women’s singles players will be divided into two groups in Stage 1. The top two players in each group will proceed to Stage 2. The four players will once again face-off in a league format, and the result of Stage 2 for players competing against each other for the second time will be considered for the final standings.
For the doubles events, all pairs will play round-robin matches to decide the final standings.
HS Prannoy, former world champion PV Sindhu, reigning Asian Champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, and the women’s doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly will be joined by the selected players.