Srikanth withdraws from 2020 Premier Badminton League
The Indian shuttler took to Twitter to announce his decision.
A day after Saina Nehwal announced her unavailability for the upcoming season of the Premier Badminton League, Rio 2016 Olympian Srikanth Kidambi has also revealed that he will be pulling out of the fifth edition of the franchise-based competition.
The Guntur shuttler took to Twitter to announce his decision to skip the upcoming season of the PBL as he wants to concentrate on his international season, especially with the 2020 Olympic Games in less than a year.
Mission: 2020
The Indian international has endured a difficult season in 2019 with wins coming far and few. The 26-year-old’s best performance came at the 2019 India Open where he lost out to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in the final.
Srikanth will be keen to compete in as many international events as possible in the Olympic year and push himself up the ladder in BWF’s Race to Tokyo Rankings before the cut-off date in April 2020. He is the sixth-best Indian in the men’s singles fray with only the top two expected to make the cut for the Tokyo Olympics.
Looking ahead
The 2020 edition of PBL will begin on January 20 with the final scheduled for February 9. The matches will be held in Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, and Bengaluru. Srikanth was an integral part of the Bengaluru Raptors that won the title last season.
Srikanth, meanwhile, will be in action at the 2019 Syed Modi International Championships that gets underway in Lucknow from Tuesday.