Twice-champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be eyeing to bring back home their third crown from Bangkok when they enter the Nimibutr Stadium courts for the Thailand Open 2026 badminton tournament, which starts from Tuesday.
Reigning Asian Games champions Satwik-Chirag, fourth in the men’s doubles badminton rankings, have fond memories of the Thailand Open, having bagged the BWF Super 500 tournament twice – in 2019 and 2024. They will be out looking for a third crown and the duo comes into the tournament on the back of a run of good results at the Thomas Cup, where they helped India bag the bronze medal.
Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty and Kidambi Srikanth, Sat-Chi’s teammates from the Thomas Cup campaign, will headline India’s campaign in the men’s singles category in Thailand. Srikanth is also a former champion, having been crowned the men’s singles winner in 2013.
Manav Choudhary will make his debut in a Super 500 tournament in the qualifiers and will be up against Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, a Thailand Open finalist from 2018, headlines India’s women’s singles campaign at the upcoming Thailand Open. Malvika Bansod, Unnati Hooda, Anmol Kharb and Tanvi Sharma will also look to impress in the Asian meet.
With Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand skipping the meet with the former still recovering from an injury, Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda are the only Indian women’s doubles pair in fray.
Olympian Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila will front the Indian charge in mixed doubles.
India squad: Men’s singles: Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, Tharun Mannepalli, Kidambi Srikanth, Manav Choudhary (Q).
Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, MR Arjun/Hariharan Amsakarunan.
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda, Isharani Baruah, Devika Sihag, Tanvi Sharma, Malvika Bansod, Anmol Kharb, Anushka Shahapurkar (Q).
Women’s doubles: Rutaparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda.
Mixed doubles: Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto, Rohan Kapoor/Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh, Mohit Jaglan/Lakshita Jaglan (Q).
