National Badminton champion Trupti Murgunde fails to make the cut

National champion Trupti Murgunde was the most prominent name missing from the badminton squad for the Commonwealth Games. The team was
announced on Thursday. The other selections were on expected lines, with Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal leading the men’s and women’s teams.

VK Verma, president of Badminton Association of India, said the most important criterion for selection was world ranking, and since Aditi Mutatkar was ranked higher than Trupti Murgunde, Aditi made the cut. “There were three-four elements that the selection committee looked into,” Verma told DNA.

“World ranking is the most important of those, and Aditi is ranked 34, while Trupti is ranked 52. Statistics will also show that Aditi played only 11 international tournaments to get to No.34, while Trupti played 15.”

Verma said it was a “unanimous decision” by the selection committee, consisting of chief coach P Gopichand, Dinesh Khanna, Aparna Popat and Damayanti Tambe.

There are six gold medals at stake in the Commonwealth - five in the individual events, and one in the team event, which follows the Sudirman Cup
format with two singles and three doubles.

“We can get gold in the women’s singles and the mixed doubles,” said Verma. “We can get a medal too in the team event. Malaysia and England are obviously the biggest challengers.”