Asia Team Badminton Championship: Indian contingent led by PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth to face tough challenge

Alor Setar: With HS Prannoy injured and Saina Nehwal pulling out, India will have a tough task at hand when Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu lead the men’s and women’s teams respectively at the Asia Team Badminton Championship starting on Tuesday. The Asia Team Championship will also act as a qualifier for the Thomas and Uber Cup tournaments to be held in Bangkok from 20-27 May with the teams finishing at the semi-finals qualifying for the prestigious tournament. Indian men’s team, which has been clubbed with Maldives and formidable Indonesia in Group D, will open its campaign in the tournament with a clash against Philippines on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_4150563” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth are India’s bets bets for a title at the Denmark Open. Getty[/caption] The onus would be on Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma to win the three singles in the absence of Prannoy, who is on way to recovery after developing corns in his feet. The women’s team will be without the services of Saina, who decided to skip the event to prepare for the All England Championship to be held from 14-18 March at Birmingham, and in her absence the onus would be on Sindhu and young Krishna Priya and Ruthvika Gadde to shoulder the responsibility of singles events. It will be an uphill task as the women’s team have been clubbed with heavyweight Japan and Hong Kong in Group W. Sindhu, who finished runner-up at the India Open last night, reached Malaysia this morning and it would be interesting to see if she can recover well when India take on Hong Kong on Tuesday. The Hong Kong team has in it Cheung Ngan Yi, who beat Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the quarter-finals in India Open last week. World No 30 Yip Pui Yin will also be in their ranks. In the women’s competition, Japan will pose the biggest challenge as they boast of World No 2 Akane Yamaguchi, World Champion Nozomi Okuhara and World No 13 Sayaka Sato. On the other hand, Srikanth and Co will have their task cut out against Indonesia, who have some formidable singles player in Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who had fought at the finals of Korea Open Superseries last year. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who reached the semi-finals at Indonesia Masters, and national champions Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy will shoulder the men’s doubles responsibility. In the women’s team, Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy and Prajakta Sawant and Sanyogita will look to get the wins in doubles.