Saina Nehwal withdraws from Indian Badminton selection trials for Asian Games

Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal, who has won the Commonwealth Games twice, has withdrawn from the national badminton selection trials for the Asian Games due to fitness issues.

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) will be holding the trials from May 4 to 7 for picking the team for the prestigious tournament, set to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8.

BAI Secretary Sanjay Mishra confirmed that Saina Nehwal and the men's pair of Kushal Raj and Prakash Raj will not be participating in the trials.

Saina Nehwal has struggled with injuries for some time and skipped the trials for the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships in January and the Commonwealth Games trials last year.

It should be noted that the rest of the players who were called for the trials will be competing this week for the spots. Saina's last competitive match was at the Orleans Masters.

Direct Selection of Players by BAI for Asian Games

Several players were directly selected by the BAI for the Asian Games based on their rankings in the BWF Top 20 rankings list as of April 18. These include PV Sindhu, HS Prannoybax, Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Treesa Jolly, and Gayatri Gopichand.

Nine men's singles players, including Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat, Mithun Manjunath, and B Sai Praneeth, will have to compete in the trials.

In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, and Unnati Hooda will be among the shuttlers present in the trials. The trials will select three players for the men's singles, women's singles, two mixed doubles pairs, one men's doubles pairs, and one women's doubles pair.

It remains to be seen who will make the cut for the Asian Games with the absence of Saina Nehwal from the selection trials. However, the Indian badminton team will be aiming to perform well in the upcoming tournament.