PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will look to get back to form at the Badminton Asia Championships

India’s top badminton stars have a great opportunity to get back to form before the season gets underway in full swing at the Badminton Asia Championships in Dubai.

Following a brief break from active competition, the top badminton talents in India, including PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, and Satwik-Chirag will look to capitalise on the opportunity of getting back into form at the individual Badminton Asia Championships starting on April 25 in Dubai.

The mixed team championships of the Badminton Asia Championships had been held in February in India. On that occasion, India had won the bronze after a pretty strong performance.

The upcoming individual edition is also expected to be crucial because of its timing. It comes just ahead of the beginning of the Olympic qualification cycle for the Paris Games in 2024 and the Sudirman Cup (world team championships) beginning in May.

The BWF Tour had also taken a small break following the European circuit in March where Indian players bagged mostly mixed results. These players managed to get a rest of three to four weeks from active competition. Having found the necessary break to rest and relax, these players will now be hoping to begin afresh and kick on a new challenge for the remainder of the badminton season.

PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty are the seeded Indians at the event.

Meanwhile, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has decided to organise trials for players in May in order to decide the squad for the upcoming Asian Games 2023. The Asian Games are set to be held in Hangzhou, China between September and October this year and the BAI has issued a circular to affiliate associations to send players for the trials, which will be conducted at Jwala Gutta Academy of Excellence in Telangana from May 4 to 7.

As of April 18, only 20 players had secured a direct spot in India’s team for the Asian Games. The Asian Games were supposed to be held last year but got pushed by a year due to Covid-19 cases in Hangzhou, China.

Only PV Sindhu (women's singles), HS Prannoy (men's singles), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (men's doubles), and Gayatri Gopichand and Jolly Treesa (women's doubles) have made it directly to the Indian badminton squad. World Championships silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth, bronze medalist Lakshya Sen are among the ones who have to battle it out as they ranked outside the top 20.

Also included in the mix is Priyanshu Rajawat, the Orleans Masters champion, who will be competing in the trials. Former Singapore Open champion Sai Praneeth and Mithun Manjunath will also be part of the trials.

"The deadline to send confirmation of participation in the final Selection Trials to BAI is 5pm, Friday, 28th April 2023," BAI said in the letter. "Format of the trials will be set after confirmation deadline."