Maisnam Meiraba Luwang and Malvika Bansod will spearhead India’s challenge as the Badminton Association of India announced a 23-member squad that is set to participate at the Asian Junior Championship in Suzhou, China from July 20-28.

The boys’ singles challenge will be led by Manipur’s Maisnam, who has amassed an impressive total of 1000 points, by virtue of a fine run in the domestic circuit winning consecutive four domestic junior titles as well as both the selection tournaments.

The girls’ team will be spearheaded by Airport Authority of India’s Malvika Bansod, who topped the list with 1000 points.

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While Meiraba topped the chart in the boys’ singles section, the others joining him will be the Tamil Nadu trio of Sathish Kumar, Sidhant Gupta and Sankar Muthuswamy.

In girls’ singles, Bansod will be joined by Delhi’s Ashi Rawat, Unnati Bisht of Uttarakhand and the 2017 U-15 Asian Junior Championships gold medallist Samiya Imad Farooqui from Telengana.

Ishaan Bhatnagar and Vishnuvardhan Goud will be leading India’s challenge in the boys’ doubles section. Aditi Bhatt and Tanisha Crasto will be the ones to watch in girls’ doubles as they topped the points table with 926 points while the in-form pair of K Dingku Sing and Ritika Thakkar will be India’s main stay in the mixed doubles.

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At the previous edition held in Indonesia, India won gold after 54 years, courtesy Lakshya Sen who won the boys’ singles title.

The coaching team will be headed by Junior National Coach, Sanjay Mishra and former India players Chetan Anand and Arun Vishnu among others as coaches.

The Indian team will be undergoing a camp for fifteen days starting July 3 in Panchkula, Haryana.

BAI has considered the cumulative ranking points from the two All India Junior Ranking tournaments held in Chennai and Trivandrum in the month of May while selecting the squad. While considering the player’s selection, each of the leg winners gets 500 while the runner-up bags 425. The rest of the points bifurcation are: semi-finals (350), quarter-finals (275) and pre-quarter-finals (192).

India's squad for Junior Asian C'ships

Sr No Name State/Org Sr No Name State/Org
               BOYS             GIRLS  
1. Maisnam Meiraba AAI 1. Malvika Bansod AAI
2. Sathish Kumar K TN 2. Ashi Rawat DLI
3. Sidhanth Gupta TN 3. Samiya Imad Farooqui TS
4. S. Muthuswamy TN 4. Unnati Bishth UTR
5. Ishaan Bhatnagar CG 5. Aditi Bhatt UTR
6. VishnuvardhanGoud TS 6. Tanisha Crasto GOA
7. Manjit Singh MNP 7. Treesa Jolly KER
8. K. Dingku Sing MNP 8. VS Varshini TN
9. P.S Ravi Krishna KER 9. Simran Singhi MAH
10. Manav Raj Smith KER 10. Ritika Thakkar MAH
11. Edwin Joy KER 11. Shruti Mishra UP
      12. Riza Mahreen KER
  COACHES     SUPPORT STAFF  
1.  Sanjay Mishra Junior Chief Coach 1. Manpreet Hora Physio
2. Arun Vishnu Coach 2. Astha Kulshreshtha Physio
3. Sayali Gokhale Coach      
4. Sachin Rana Coach      
5. Chetan Anand Coach      
6. T Maran Coach