Big Blow as Indian Men’s Doubles Pair Withdraw from Sudirman Cup

The world no.10 men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pulled out from the doubles event at the upcoming mixed team event, the Sudirman Cup, due to unknown medical reasons.

Chirag and Satwik were part of the 12-member Indian team that left for Vantaa Finland. The Indian team also comprises men’s singles players Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, women’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy and youngsters such as Malvika Bansod, Aditi Bhatt, Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda.

Badminton Association of India on Thursday, 23rd September announced that “Chirag and Satwik have withdrawn on medical grounds as the former is not well. It is also uncertain if they will participate in the Thomas Cup, which will be held after the Sudirman Cup. It will be subject to Chirag’s recovery from illness.”

Sudirman Cup scheduled between Sep 26th-3rd Oct, will be the first major BWF mixed team tournament to be held this year. Badminton governing body was forced to reschedule a number of tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This news comes as a shocker to all Indian badminton fans.

Hopes were high on Chirag and Satwik, as they were the only Indian pair to win two matches at the Olympic games and they were the ones who beat Yang Lee and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei in the group stages. Yang Lee & Wang Chi-Lin eventually went on to win the Gold medal.

We hope Chirag recovers before the Thomas and Uber Cup which is slotted between 9th to 17th October at Aarhus in Denmark.