Chandigarh: Not surprised by the modest price offered to Rio Olympic medallist PV Sindhu in the Premier Badminton League 2017 auction, doubles specialist and Ludhiana lad Pranaav Jerry Chopra is of the opinion that since everyone knew that Chennai Smashers were going to retain Sindhu back in the team, so all the other teams were focusing on getting the other iconic players.
In all praise for Saina Nehwal, Pranaav said, “Saina is obviously the star icon of Indian badminton and when she will be on the court during PBL everyone will want to watch that match.”
Talking about the auction, which took place earlier this month, Pranaav said that they all were quite excited about the auction and was just updating our twitter every second as the info on the players were uploaded there on the PBL account. “So we all were just kept on updating our twitter to see who made it to which team,” he said.
Little disappointed with the price he got during the auction, Pranaav said that he expected a better price. “I have been performing well. My world ranking is also going higher. I also expected better prices for my fellow doubles players who have been playing well at the international level and have the potential to match the foreign players,” said the Brazil Open and the Russian Grand Prix Open winner.
The Ludhiana youngster, who is focussing more on mixed doubles these days, said that all the teams in the PBL were very balanced and it was the scoring system which would make it more interesting. “It will be played 3 sets of 11 points and will be very interesting to watch as I don't think that anyone would be unbeatable in this format,” said Pranaav, adding that all the players who were coming here were world class players and in this point system it would be fun to watch everyone play on the courts.
Talking about his team Bengaluru Blasters, Pranaav said, “We definitely have a good and a balanced team with Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) and Sourabh Varma in singles. Then myself and two Korean players for doubles and mixed doubles with Sikki and Ashwini also on our side, we will be a team to beat.”