# Chennai Superstarz

Chennai Superstarz (formerly known as Chennai Smashers) is a franchise badminton team based in Chennai that plays in the Premier Badminton League (PBL). The team has won the PBL title once, has been in the semi-finals of the league twice in their five appearances. They won the 2017 season beating Mumbai Rockets 3–2. The franchise was renamed from Chennai Smashers to Chennai Superstarz in 2020.

## History

The team's first season in the PBL was in 2016. Vijay Prabhakaran initially owned the franchise from 2016 to 2019. In December 2019, Sivakumar who owns a regional badminton league named Tamil Nadu Badminton Super League acquired the franchise to become its new owner. The franchise also changed its name into Chennai Superstarz for the 2020 season.
Rio Olympics silver medallist P. V. Sindhu was part of the team for the first three seasons. They won their first and only PBL title in 2017. With P. V. Sindhu in their roster, they defeated Mumbai Rockets 3–2 in the final at New Delhi. During the third and fourth seasons, the team finished sixth. They failed to get past Northeastern Warriors in the semi-finals (-1)–3. The team is currently coached by Aravindan Samiappan.

## Home venue

From 2017, the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium serves as the home for the team. The stadium located in Chennai, has a seating capacity of 5,000. In 2016, there was no home venue for the team due to unavailability of Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium in Chennai and Coimbatore.

## Current squad

| | Player | Category | Salary | Notes |
| Coach | Aravindan Samiappan | Aravindan Samiappan | Aravindan Samiappan | Aravindan Samiappan |
| Domestic | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy | Men's/Mixed Doubles | ₹62 lakh (US$73,000) | |
| Domestic | B. Sumeeth Reddy | Men's/Mixed Doubles | ₹11 lakh (US$13,000) | Retained player |
| Domestic | Dhruv Kapila | Men's/Mixed Doubles | | |
| Domestic | Sanjana Santosh | Women's/Mixed Doubles | ₹2 lakh (US$2,300) | |
| Domestic | Gayatri Gopichand | Women's Singles | ₹2 lakh (US$2,300) | |
| Domestic | Lakshya Sen | Men's Singles | ₹36 lakh (US$42,000) | |
| Domestic | K. Sathish Kumar | Men's Singles | ₹1 lakh (US$1,200) | |
| Domestic | Sankar Muthusamy | Men's Singles | ₹1 lakh (US$1,200) | |
| Overseas | Tommy Sugiarto | Men's Singles | ₹41 lakh (US$48,000) | Captain |
| Overseas | Kirsty Gilmour | Women's Singles | ₹10 lakh (US$12,000) | |
| Overseas | Jessica Pugh | Women's/Mixed Doubles | ₹13 lakh (US$15,000) | Transferred from Mumbai |

## Seasons
### Result summary

| S | Year | Total | RMW | TMW | TML | Pts. | Win % | League standing | Final standing |
| 1 | 2016 | 25 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 56% | 3rd out of 6 | Semi-finalist |
| 2 | 2017 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 52% | 1st out of 6 | Champions |
| 3 | 2017–18 | 25 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 44% | 6th out of 8 | 6th Place |
| 4 | 2018–19 | 30 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 50% | 6th out of 9 | 6th Place |
| 5 | 2020 | 30 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 22 | 53% | 3rd out of 7 | Semi-finalist |
| | Total | 135 | 48 | 21 | 6 | — | 51% | | |
Last updated: 7 February 2020; Source: Official PBL website

### Season 3
#### Player statistics

| Player | Category | P | W | Sets Won | Sets Lost | Win % | MVP |
| Brice Leverdez | Men's Singles | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 25 | 0 |
| Sony Dwi Kuncoro | Men's Singles | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 33.3 | 0 |
| Simon Santoso | Men's Singles | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 50 | 0 |
| P. V. Sindhu | Women's Singles | 5 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 100 | 2 |
| Krishna Priya | Women's Singles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pranaav Chopra | Men's/Mixed Doubles | 5 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 20 | 0 |
| Chris Adcock | Men's/Mixed Doubles | 9 | 5 | 11 | 10 | 56 | 2 |
| Toby Ng | Men's/Mixed Doubles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Sikki Reddy | Women's/Mixed Doubles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pia Zebadiah | Women's/Mixed Doubles | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 80 | 0 |
| Total Matches Played: 5 | Total Matches Played: 5 | Total Matches Played: 5 | Total Matches Played: 5 | NA | NA | 80 | 4 |

### Season 5
#### Player statistics

| Player | Category | P | W | Sets Won | Sets Lost | Win % | MVP |
| Lakshya Sen | Men's Singles | 5 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 80% | 1 |
| K. Sathish Kumar | Men's Singles | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0% | 0 |
| Sankar Muthusamy | Men's Singles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0% | 0 |
| Tommy Sugiarto | Men's Singles | 4 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 100% | 2 |
| Gayatri Gopichand | Women's Singles | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0% | 0 |
| Kirsty Gilmour | Women's Singles | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 100% | 0 |
| Satwiksairaj Rankireddy | Men's/Mixed Doubles | 7 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 57% | 1 |
| B. Sumeeth Reddy | Men's/Mixed Doubles | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 50% | 1 |
| Dhruv Kapila | Men's/Mixed Doubles | 7 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 43% | 1 |
| Sanjana Santosh | Women's/Mixed Doubles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0% | 0 |
| Jessica Pugh | Women's/Mixed Doubles | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 60% | 1 |
| Total Matches Played: 30 | Total Matches Played: 30 | Total Matches Played: 30 | Total Matches Played: 30 | NA | NA | | |
Last updated: 5 February 2020; Source: Official PBL website
Chennai Superstarz finished third in the league stage with 22 points qualifying for the semifinals. They won all of their trump matches becoming the only team in the season to do so. They lost to Northeastern Warriors in the semifinal. This was their second PBL semifinal loss in five appearances.

## Former squads

| Year (S) | 2018-19 (4) | 2017-18 (3) | 2017 (2) | 2016 (1) |
| Domestic | Vijaydeep Singh | Vijaydeep Singh | Vijaydeep Singh | Vijaydeep Singh |
| Domestic | Sumeeth Reddy | P. V. Sindhu | P. V. Sindhu | P. V. Sindhu |
| Domestic | Rutaparna Panda | Aditya Joshi | Arundhati Pantawane | Krishna Priya |
| Domestic | Saili Rane | B. Sumeeth Reddy | Parupalli Kashyap | Pranaav Chopra |
| Domestic | Saili Rane | Daniel Farid | Ramya Tulasi | Sikki Reddy |
| Domestic | Parupalli Kashyap | Vrushali Gummadi | B. Sumeeth Reddy | |
| Overseas | Chris Adcock | Chris Adcock | Chris Adcock | Chris Adcock |
| Overseas | Gabby Adcock | Brice Leverdez | Tommy Sugiarto | Brice Leverdez |
| Overseas | Or Chin Chung | Gabby Adcock | Gabby Adcock | Sony Dwi Kuncoro |
| Overseas | Rajiv Ouseph | Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk | Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk | Simon Santoso |
| Overseas | Sung Ji-hyun | Lee Yang | Mads Pieler Kolding | Toby Ng |
| Overseas | Chong Wei Feng | | | Pia Zebadiah |
* Team captains listed in bold.