Anand, Murgunde to lead at SAF badminton

World No 20 Chetan Anand and Trupti Murgunde will spearhead India's campaign at the badminton tournament at the South Asian Federation Games in Colombo, starting August 17.

India will enter 15 shuttlers -- eight men and seven women -- for the regional sporting event.

However, the country's new shuttle star Saina Nehwal will not be taking the flight to Sri Lanka as the dates for the event are clashing with the Korean and Hong Kong Opens, where the Badminton Association of India is sending a separate team.

National champion Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhat will also be in action in the Korea and Hong Kong tournaments.

The Indian team for the SAF Games:

Men: Chetan Anand, Nikhil Kanetkar, Thomas Kurien, Sanave Thomas, Rupesh Kumar, V Diju, Jishnu Sanyal, Akshay Dewalkar.

Women: Trupti Murgunde, B R Meenakshi, Aparna Balan, Jwala Gutta, Shruti Kurien, Krishna Deka Rai, Oli Deka.