Premier Badminton League, season II and a glance at the teams

Premiere Badminton League, the second season took a fresh start on January 1, 2017 at Hyderabad. Badminton Association of India, (BAI) was pleased to have partnered with Sportzlive, who was already been part of the league as commercial partners, granting long-term rights of very prestigious Premiere Badminton League.

Sportzlive chairman, Prasad Mangipudi said, “As audience are evolving with the taste, change in the format is must. We are making sure to keep the game continued to excite them. Before the BWF thought to implement the 11-point system, we had already implemented in the second season of PBL. The idea is to keep the league attractive, exciting and draw more crowd.”

PBL season one semi finalists, Chennai Smashers played against Hyderabad Hunters in the opening fixture followed by a match between defending champions Delhi Acers and Bengaluru Blasters.

Mumbai Rockets and Delhi Acers were the two teams that emerged from the league and semi final stages as the teams faced each other in the finals. Unlike the last season, few players had been shuffled. Each team had strong contenders unique with their strategy.

Teams were as follows:

Awadhe Warriors

Host stadium: Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium, Lucknow

Team:

Men’s Single: Aditya Joshi, K Srikanth, Vincent Wong Wing Ki

Women’s Single: Rituparna Das, Saina Nehwal,

Doubles: Bodin Isara, Goh W Shem, Markis Kido, P Sawant, Savitree Amitrapai

Hyderabad Hunters

Host stadium: Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad

Team:

Men’s Single: B Sai Praneeth, Rajiv Ouseph, Sameer Verma

Women’s Single: Carolina Marin, Sree Krishna Priya

Doubles: Satwik Sai Raj, Tan Boon Heong, Tan Wee Kiong, Chau Hoi Wah, Meghana J

Bengaluru Blasters

Host Stadium: Koramangala Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru

Team:

Men’s Single: Boonsak Pnsanna, Sourabh Verma, Viktor Axelsen

Women’s Single: Ruthvika Shivani Gadde

Doubles: Ko Sung Hyun, Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Yoo Yeon Seong, Ashwini Ponappa, Sikki Reddy, Cheun Ngan Yi

Chennai Smashers

Men’s Single: P Kashyap, Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, Tommy Sugiarto

Women’s Single: PV Sindhu, Arundhati Pantawane

Doubles: Sumeeth Reddy, Chris Adcock, Gabriel Adcock, Mads Pieler Kolding, Ramya Tulasi

Mumbai Rockets

Host stadium: The National Sports Club of India, Mumbai

Team:

Men’s Singles: Ajay Jayaram, HS Prannoy, Shreyans Jaiswal

Women’s Singles: Sung Ji Hyun, Vrushali Gummadi, Chirag Shetty, Lee Yong Dae, Nipithphon

Phuangphuapet, Nadiezda Zieba, Mohita Sahdev

Delhi Acers

Host stadium: DDA Badminton & Squash Stadium – Siri Fort, Delhi

Team:

Men’s Singles: Jan o Jorgensen, Siril Verma, Son Wan Ho

Women’s Singles: Aakarshi Kashyap, Nitchaon Jindapon

Doubles: Akshay Dewalkar, Ivan Sozonov, Vladimir Ivanov, Jwala Gutta, Maneesha K