Beijing: China has decided to send their men’s squad for the Badminton Asian Team Championship (BATC) slated to be held in India from Feb 15 to Feb 21 without Lin Dan and Chen Long.
Li Xuerui and Wang Yihan have also been excluded from the China women’s BATC squad.
BATC will serve as a qualifier for teams to earn a ticket to the Thomas Cup final scheduled in Kunshan, China from May 15 to 22. China and Japan have qualified by merit as they are the respective host and defending champions. It’s obvious that China rather use this great opportunity to get some young Chinese players exposed to the highly competition atmosphere.
World No. 8 Tian Houwei, and World No. 10 Wang Zhengming will lead China’s challenge in the men’s singles event alongside World No. 54 Qiao Bin, World No. 115 Shi Yuqi. Obviously Tian and Wang would undoubtedly be the main players in the men’s singles.
China also has decided to list Liu Xiaolong/ Qiu Zihan, the “Twin Towers” Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen and Wang YiLv/ Zhang Wen in men’s doubles, with the noticeable absence of World No. 3 Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan and World No. 5 Chai Biao/Hong Wei.
Included in the Chinese women’s squad for the BATC are Wang ShiXian, Sun Yu, Chen Yufei, and He BingJiao for women’s singles.
Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei, Yu Yang/Tang Yuanting, Luo Ying/Luo Yu will be playing under the women’s doubles section.
