London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and Thailand Grand Prix champion K Srikanth will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Li-Ning BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals to be held at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here from May 18 to 25.
The 24-year-old Saina will lead charge in the Uber Cup competition and world No. 18 Srikanth will be shouldering the responsibility in the Thomas Cup as India went with five singles and five doubles players in both the squads, selected on the basis of world rankings.
With the maximum number of players allowed in the squad being 10, many teams have gone for four singles and six doubles players.
Besides Saina, other singles members in the Uber Cup team include world champion bronze medallist P V Sindhu, National Games champion Arundhati Pantawane, world No. 57 Tanvi Laad, world No. 65 P C Thulasi.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who recently won a bronze at the Asian Badminton Championship, will lead in doubles while others in same section include Aparna Balan, N Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre.
"Uber Cup is the biggest tournament in India and we are focussed to do well. We have got a decent draw. We need to focus and give our best and play with confidence and I am sure we will do well," Ashwini told PTI.
In Thomas Cup, the other singles members include world No. 21 Parupalli Kashyap, world No. 30 R M V Guru Sai Dutt, world No. 35 Sourabh Varma, while world No. 52 B Sai Praneeth have been selected ahead of world No. 42 H S Prannoy and world No. 49 Anand Pawar.
"It is a prestigious tournament and there are no easy draws here. It is difficult to predict where we will finish in the tournament. The team will give their best in every match and I think we should get into the last-eight stages in Uber Cup," chief coach Pullela Gopichand said.
"The men's draw is tough. But I think except for Lee Chong Wei, every singles match we have a chance," he added.
Meanwhile, world champion Lin Dan and world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei will lead the parade of star badminton players when the prestigious biennial team championships gets underway for the first time in India.
