PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy headline 16-member Indian squad at BWF World Championships

PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy (Pic: AFP)

A strong 16-member Indian contingent featuring Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy is all set to participate in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships draw, which is scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday. The draw will be starting at 12:30 PM IST, as per Olympics.com.

PV Sindhu, the 16th seed, is the only Indian shuttler part of the 2023 BWF World Championships women's singles competition draw following London 2012 Olympics medalist Saina Nehwal's withdrawal.

Sindhu, a world champion in the 2019 edition of the tournament, silver medalist in 2017, 2018 and bronze medal winner in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the tournament is the most successful Indian player in the history of World Championships.

The Olympic double medalist is not in the best of form this year, failing to get past the opening round in seven of her 14 BWF World Tour tournament appearances in the ongoing season.

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HS Prannoy will be the best-seeded Indian in the men's singles competition. He is the ninth seed, followed by the 11th seed Lakshya Sen, who is also the Commonwealth Games champion. Both these players have won bronze medals at this competition previously.

Kidambi Srikanth, who clinched a silver at the Huelva 2021 World Championships and is the only Indian male shuttler to make it to the final of the World Championships, will be unseeded in the draw.

Coming to the men's doubles competition, the in-form Indian duo of Chirag Shetty, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be the second-seeded team behind the Indonesian duo of Fajar Alfian Muhammad Rian Ardianto - who are also the reigning All-England champions. The 16th seed in the women's doubles competition is the Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.

The BWF World Championships 2023 will be held from August 21 to 27 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

BWF World Championships 2023: Indian badminton players

Men's singles: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth

Women's singles: PV Sindhu

Men's doubles: Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila

Women's doubles: Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Bhat K/Shikha Gautam

Mixed doubles: Rohan Kapoor/N Sikki Reddy, Venkat Prasad/Juhi Dewangan

(With agency inputs)