Rising Odisha star Rutaparna Panda will turn up for North Eastern Warriors in the fifth season of the Premier Badminton League (PBL), scheduled to be played in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow from 20 January to 9 February, 2020.

Rutaparna was sold for Rs 1 lakh in the auction held in New Delhi today. A total of 154 players, including Sai Praneeth, Lakshya Sen, and mens doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, were also part of the auction.

World champion PV Sindhu was retained by Hyderabad Hunters for Rs 77 lakh. World No 1 women singles player Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei was also bought for joint highest amount of Rs 77 lakh by defending champions Bengaluru Raptors.

The PBL-5 lost two leading starts as London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth pulled out in order to focus on their international careers. The fifth edition of PBL will see a total of 74 Indian shuttlers in action.

The seven teams of PBL-5 are: Awadhe Warriors (Lucknow), Bengaluru Raptors (Bengaluru), Mumbai Rockets (Mumbai), Hyderabad Hunters (Hyderabad), Chennai Superstarz (Chennai), North Eastern Warriors (North East) and Pune 7 Aces (Pune).

The format of the upcoming edition of the league remains the same with each tie consisting of five matches -- two men singles, one women singles, one men doubles and one mixed doubles.