Assam’s badminton prodigy Ashmita Chaliha will head the women squad of India who will participate in the second edition of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships slated to be held at Hong Kong from March 19 to March 24.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) selected seven talented badminton players for the women squad to participate in the championships on the basis of their performances.
Apart from Chaliha, the other six women who have been selected by BAI to play for the Tong Yun Kai Cup 2019 include Vaishnavi Bhale, Shikha Gautam, Ashwini K Bhat, Rutaparna Panda, Arathi Sara Sunil, UK Mithula.
The six players of the men squad selected by BAI for the Championships include HS Prannoy, Sourabh Verma, MR Arjun, Shlok Ramchandran, Arun George, Sanyam Shukla.
The 13-member Indian team will be led by HS Prannoy, according to reports.
Chaliha who has a couple of Badminton World Federation (BWF) titles under her name will get support from Nagpur shuttler Vaishnavi Bhale who got selected for the Uber Cup last year.
She won her first senior international title at the 2018 Dubai International Challenge in the women’s singles event.
She also bagged her second International singles title at the Tata Open International Challenge 2018 in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
She also reached the semifinals of the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championship last month.
The 19-year-old badminton prodigy did her training from Assam Badminton Academy and had been coached by leading badminton players like Edwin Iriawan and Pullela Gopichand.
Born and brought up in Guwahati, she also represented India at the Asian Games held in Jakarta last year.