Badminton News: Indian shuttlers improve in latest BWF world rankings, but is it enough?

The Badminton World Federation has released their latest world rankings and the Indian shuttlers like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth have seen considerable improvements in the same. Olympics Bronze medallist, Saina is positioned 19th in the women’s singles category, a jump from her earlier 20th place. Among men’s singles ranking, Srikanth Kidambi moved to 13th position from his earlier 14th position, while B. Sai Praneeth’s ranking dropped one position from 16 to 17. The biggest progress made by Indian players was in the mixed-doubles category, where the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa jumped 16 positions to be at 19 positions from their earlier ranking of 36. In the men’s doubles category, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty retained their 10th position. In the women’s doubles category, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy dropped one place to ranked 29th. As far as rankings are concerned then it feels good to see our shuttlers improving, but when it comes to their performances, which is going far below the required level, it’s certainly a reality check for them ahead of the marquee event Tokyo Olympics.