India handed comfortable group stage draw at BWF World Junior Team Championships 2025

NEW DELHI: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday announced the draw for the BWF World Junior Championships 2025 – Suhandinata Cup (Mixed Team Event), to be held at the National Centre of Excellence, Amingaon, Guwahati, from 6 to 11 October 2025, according to a release from BWF.

Second-seeded India will compete in Group H alongside Hong Kong China, Nepal, and Ghana. This prestigious global junior team event returns to India for the first time since 2008 and will feature 37 teams from across the world. The tournament format will see the winner from each group advance to the quarter-finals.

Top seeds Thailand are drawn in Group A with Denmark, Slovenia, and Cook Islands. Defending champions Indonesia are placed in Group C with Turkiye, Romania, and the Netherlands, while 14-time champions China will face Japan, Singapore, Brazil, and Bhutan in Group E.

This year, a new relay format will be tested in the competition. In the new format, there will be best-of-three sets, where a team reaching 45 points in a relay format wins a set. A set will have each of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles matches, with the first match ending after one team reaching nine points, and the next match will start.

Earlier, the relay format consisted of a single set with a race to 110 points in 10 matches. For the Indian team, medal winners from the Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2025 will gain direct entry, while the remaining spots will be decided through a selection trial from 9th to 13th August 2025 at the same venue.

Players eligible for the trials include those meeting the BAI ranking cut-offs, Indian shuttlers ranked in the BWF World Junior Top 20, and juniors ranked in the BWF Senior Top 50 as of 29 July 2025. All players selected in the Indian team for the WONDR Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2025 are also invited for the trials, except the medalists who already have direct entry.

Following the Suhandinata Cup, the individual events will also be staged in Guwahati from 13 to 19 October 2025 at the National Centre of Excellence.

Groups for the BWF World Junior Championships 2025 – Suhandinata Cup:

Group A: Thailand, Denmark, Slovenia, Cook Islands
Group B: Chinese Taipei, UAE, Canada, England, Norway
Group C: Indonesia, Turkiye, Romania, Netherlands
Group D: Poland, USA, Hungary, Ireland, Philippines
Group E: China, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Bhutan
Group F: Malaysia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Slovakia, Vietnam
Group G: France, Korea, Portugal, Egypt, Uganda
Group H: India, Hong Kong China, Nepal, Ghana. (ANI)