Dewalkar to lead, 5 Nagpur shuttlers in Maharashtra squad for West Zone Championship

NAGPUR: Five city shuttlers have been selected in the Maharashtra squad which will compete in the West Zone Inter-State Badminton Championship slated to be held at Vadodara, Gujarat, from August 22 to 25.

While Mrunmayi Saoji has found a berth in the seniors team, four talented city shuttlers Malvika Bansod, Ritika Thaker, Rashi Lambe and Sourabh Kerhalkar were picked in the juniors side.

International shuttler

Akshay Dewalkar

of Thane will lead the Maharashtra team, which was announced by the

Maharashtra Badminton Association

(MBA) secretary SA Shetty in Mumbai on Friday.

Senior city coach

Chetak Khedikar

has been appointed as the assistant coach of the team. He thanked NDBA, MBA and Centre Point School for their constant support.

"I am thankful to MBA president Arun Lakhani, NDBA and my school Centre Point School for their continuous encouragement. It is my first assignment as a coach for the state team," said Khedikar.

In-form Vaishnavi Bhale is not part of the state team as she will be doing duty for Indian University badminton team which will compete in the World University Games scheduled to be held at Chinese Taipei from August 19 to 30.

West Zone squad
Seniors mixed team: Akshay Dewalkar (captain), Kaushal Dharmamer, Abhishek Kulkarni, Prasad Shetty, Abhidnya Sawant, Neha Pandit, Manasi Gadgil, Riya Pillai, Mrunmayi Saoji (Nagpur), Sanjana Santosh.

Juniors mixed team: Arya Bhivpathki, Deep Rambhiya, Sourabh Kerhalkar (Nagpur), Akshan Shetty, Rishabh Deshpande, Malvika Bansod (Nagpur), Simran Singhi, Ritika Thaker (Nagpur), Rashi Lambe (Nagpur), Riya Arolkar.

Coach: Kulin Manek. Assistant coach: Chetak Khedikar (Nagpur). Manager: Ashish Bajpai.