Nagpur shuttlers got the belated call to join Indian squad at Worlds

Indian junior mixed doubles pair Sourabh Kerhalkar and Diksha Choudhary got the belated call to join the Indian squad for BWF World Junior Badminton Championship 2017 which will be held in Jakarta from October 9th to 14th.

The duo will be third mixed doubles pair in the U-19 team for the tournament. According to the sources from Badminton Association of India, Ira Sharma and Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka have withdrawn from the team, which made the committee compulsive to fill the vacant places.

As said by the sources, “Sourabh and Diksha have been playing quite well in the national junior circuits since the recent past. They had reached semifinals in the All India Junior Ranking tournaments at Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and Chennai. As we need the third pair in the squad, we have chosen them.”

Being in the fourth spot in the U-19 mixed doubles BAI rankings, the student from Ajay Dayal Badminton Academy has the capability to progress to top spots.

Sourabh’s parents Yashwant and Swapna Kerhalkar said that they were disappointed when their son didn’t get selected initially and later they were contented with the belated news. Sourabh has been asked to report coaching camp, Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru.

The young shuttler being the first boy from Vidarbha to represent the country will be joining Ritika Thaker and Malvika Bansod who have already been selected for the contest. “It's a dream come true for me. I will definitely do my best. Diksha and I have been consistently performing well,” said Sourabh.