After star shuttler Saina Nehwal decided to pull out of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) , Indian men’s badminton player Kidambi Srikanth has also announced that he will miss 5th season of the PBL. Former world number-1 Srikanth took to twitter to announce his decision on Monday.
The fifth season of PBL (PBL-5) will be held from January 20 to February 9 next year. The players’ auction for PBL is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on November 26. Whereas, the matches of this league will be hosted by cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Chennai.
The country’s No. 1 shuttler Kidambi Srikanth said that he now wants to focus on international tournaments, which is very important for the qualification of Tokyo Olympics-2020. He tweeted,
‘There is a very tough tournament ahead. I have to cautiously fulfil my expectations. Therefore, I will not play in PBL this year so that I can pay more attention to international tournaments. My best wishes to the Bangalore Raptors. Hopefully, the upcoming season will also be great.” ‘
Before Srikanth, Saina Nehwal also withdrew her name from PBL. Olympic medalist Saina tweeted on Sunday,
‘I will not be able to participate in the fifth season of PBL. I have been struggling with injury for most of this year and I want to take some time during PBL for better preparation ahead. I want to apologize to all my fans for this. I hope to be a part of PBL next year. ‘
However, both Saina and Srikanth have been included in the draw for the Syed Modi International Badminton Tournament starting on Tuesday. Saina is currently going through her poor form. In the last six tournaments, she has been out in the first round without winning a match for the fifth time. Like Saina, Srikanth has not been able to win any tournament for a long time.
