They lost to the world No. 1 Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-9, 18-21, 17-21 in the double's final in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
Five badminton players have been conferred the Khel Ratna so far; Pullela Gopichand (2001), Saina Nehwal (2010), PV Sindhu (2016), Pramod Bhagat (2021) and Krishna Nagar (2021).
The Asian Games champions outpaced world No. 15 Ting, 18th ranked Yu 21-15, 22-20 in the semi-finals of the BWF Super 750 event.
Popularly known as “Sat-Chi”, Satwik and Chirag climbed two spots in the BWF rankings after a historic gold medal in the recently concluded Asian Games badminton men’s doubles event in Hangzhou.
India’s challenge ends in opening round.
After being ignored last year for the same award, Prannoy had even questioned the selection criteria.
The star Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been nominated for the 'Most Improved Player of the Year' Award by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The coach also heaped praise on doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy who bagged the BWF Super 500 badminton tournament after they clinched the Thailand Open in August.
Rankireddy and Shetty were the lone medal hope after almost everyone from the Indian contingent bowed out in the opening rounds of Fuzhou China Open.
Satwik and Chirag, who had won their maiden Super 500 title at the Thailand Open in August before reaching the French Open final last month, are the lone Indians left in the tournament.
