Star shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy will lead the Indian team in their bid to win a medal in the BWF Sudirman Cup when they open their campaign against formidable Chinese Taipei here on Sunday. India has always been dependent on the singles players in the team championships and the singles players will have to perform well if they are to win their maiden medal in this World Mixed Team Championship.
The good news for the Indian team, which is confident of a good show in the team championship after the Thomas Cup win, is that it now has good doubles pairs in the form of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the men’s section and Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand in the women’s section. Are. India have been placed in Group C along with Malaysia, Chinese Taipei and Australia. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage. India had qualified for the prestigious event by winning a bronze medal at the Asian Badminton Championships last month.
However, they will face a tough challenge in the first match from the Chinese Taipei team, which has players like Olympic silver medalist Tai Tzu Ying. India have good pairs in singles and men’s and women’s doubles but mixed doubles is their weak link. In the mixed doubles, India’s chances will rest on Ashwini Ponnappa and K Sai Prateek. After facing Chinese Taipei, India will take on Malaysia on Monday. They will face Australia in their last match of the group.
India’s best performance in the Sudirman Cup has been reaching the quarter-finals. He reached the last eight in 2011 and 2017 but never progressed beyond that. Last time India could not even reach the knockout stage. The tournament has so far been dominated by China, who will look to win their 13th title. Apart from this, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Denmark are also among the contenders for the title.
