Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship: India will enter as a strong contender against this team in the tournament starting today
Dubai. India, led by a fit PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy, will be favorites against Kazakhstan in their Group B opening match of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships 2023, starting here on Tuesday. Two-time Olympic medalist and world number seven Sindhu has made a full recovery from the stress fracture that ruled her out for five months last year and is keen to find success in the new season.
After winning the gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Sindhu had to withdraw from the World Championships due to injury and she was also ruled out for the rest of the last season. Sindhu, after first round losses in the new season at the Malaysia Open and then the India Open at home, will be eyeing a win and will give it her all here. In women’s singles, Sindhu is backed by world No. 32 Aakarshi Kashyap, who won the Bangladesh International Challenge title last month.
In men’s singles, world number eight Prannoy and world number 10 Lakshya Sen will be the pinnacle of India’s hopes. Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila will play in men’s doubles in the absence of injured Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. Satwik has withdrawn from the competition due to a hip injury. Another pair in men’s doubles is Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Goud P.
In the absence of Satwik, the men’s doubles will be India’s weak side and it will not be easy for the Dhruv and Chirag pair to overcome the challenge from other top Asian pairs. The Indian challenge in women’s doubles will be spearheaded by Commonwealth Games bronze medalist pair of Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. The team includes Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam as backups.
For the mixed doubles, only the pair of Ishan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto has been included in the team. The players in the top 10 got direct entry into the team while the rest were selected through selection trials. The toughest challenge for India in the group will be Commonwealth Games champions Malaysia. The team had to face defeat against Malaysia in Birmingham. Another team in the group is the host UAE. The top two teams from the four groups will make it to the quarter-finals and India and Malaysia from Group B are favorites to make it to the knockouts, barring an upset. India have to face Malaysia in their second match on Wednesday while the team will play their last match against UAE on Thursday.
Lakshya is hopeful that India will be able to make it to the quarterfinals. Lakshya told PTI, “Our team is strong. Group stage draw is fine, shouldn’t be difficult. I think we can qualify for the quarterfinals. In the knockouts, one has to focus on one match at a time. In the first tournament in the year 2017, India managed to make it to the quarter-finals while in 2019 the team failed to progress beyond the group stage. The tournament is returning three years in a row. The tournament was canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament will be held from 14 to 19 February in which 17 countries will challenge to become the continental champions. China, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia are the top four seeded teams in the tournament.
