While defending champion India will be at full-strength at the upcoming men’s Thomas Cup Finals, the Uber Cup for women will largely see a young, inexperienced side with top players in both singles and doubles, including P.V. Sindhu, pulling out of the competition ahead of the Paris Olympics.
The 10-member team for Thomas Cup will be led by H.S. Prannoy with Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George in the singles. The World No. 1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will spearhead the challenge in the doubles, along with M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila with Sai Pratheek as the back-up doubles player as India looks to retain the crown it won for the first-time ever in 2022.
For the Uber Cup, the selectors decided to give an opportunity to youngsters after top players in both singles and doubles pulled out. The Badminton Association of India said that Sindhu had cited back-to-back tournaments in the run-up to the Paris Olympics as reason to skip in her communication to the selectors. The second-highest ranked Indian player, Aakarshi Kashyap, is also not part of the squad.
