Gopichand to lead for
Thomas/Uber Cup

All England badminton champion Pulella Gopichand, who missed the recent National badminton championships due to an ankle injury, will lead India in the prestigious Thomas Cup, to be played in Holland next month.

Gopichand will be fit in time to lead the country, the Badminton Association of India, which announced the men's and women's teams for the Thomas and Uber Cups, said in Mumbai on Monday.

Gopichand had suffered an ankle injury while training in England but played the Copenhagen Masters nevertheless. Later, the injury was diagnosed as a minor fracture.

Gopichand, who will be defending his All England title in March, had recently expressed confidence of bouncing back to form.

Besides, Gopichand, the team, announced by the BAI selection committee, comprises Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Chetan Anand, Nikhil Kanetkar, Jaseel P Ismail, Jaison Xavier, Sunave Thomas, V Diju, Sachin Ratti and Karnataka's Arvind Bhatt, who lost to Abhinn Shyam Gupta in the men's singles final in the just-concluded National championship.

The women's team comprises Trupti Murgunde, P V V Laxmi, C H Deepti, G Jwala, S Kurian, Neelima Chaudhary, D Swetha and Madhumita Bisht.

S M Arif, Sanjay Sharma, Leroy D'Sa and Roman Ghosh are the coaches, a BAI statement said.

The players were selected on the basis of their performance in the National senior championship at Lucknow and other tournaments preceding it, the statement added.