NEW DELHI: Anupama Upadhyaya, the newly crowned junior world No. 1, and Unnati Hooda, the winner of the Odisha Open Super 100, will lead India's challenge in the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Santander, Spain, from October 17 - 30.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the competition has not been held for the past two years. 

After a selection procedure that comprised two All India Ranking tournaments and a selection trial in Raipur, the team was selected.

The girl's singles trials had been won by Hooda, with S. Rakshita Sree and Upadhayaya coming in second and third, respectively.

India's best chance in the boy's singles division will be the in-form Bharat Raghav, who won both of the All Indian Ranking titles in Goa and Panchkula, and former junior world No. 1 Sankar Muthusamy, with Ayush Shetty rounding out the lineup.

Lakshya Sen, the current Commonwealth Games gold medalist, was the last Indian to step on the podium and collect the boy's singles bronze medal in 2018. India has thus far won one gold, three silver, and five bronze medals in the competition.

Sanjay Mishra, secretary of the Badminton Association of India, said, "The junior world championships are taking place after a long break, and with new players developing, the team has been selected following comprehensive selection trials." We are optimistic that we will be vying for medals in both the individual events and the mixed team championships, he said.

Mixed team competition will open the event. Men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles were among the five matches played to break the tie.

Also, India will field two doubles pairs in the categories of men's, women's, and mixed doubles. The men's doubles will be handled by the new team of Arsh Mohammad and Abhinav Thakur, Nicholas Nathan Raj, and Tushar Suveer.

Ishrani Baruah and Devika Sihag, winners of the All India Ranking Meet in Goa, will be joined by Shreya Balaji and Srinidhi N from Tamil Nadu, who recently assisted their state in winning the South Zone U19 mixed team title. Boy's singles for the Indian team are Bharat Raghav, Sankar Muthusamy S, and Ayush Shetty.

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