A depleted Indian squad, sans its best doubles pairs, will battle against odds at the Sudirman Cup mixed team event, which kicks off in Xiamen, China on Sunday.
Given the indifferent form of PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy, who are struggling to clear the initial rounds, the pullout of injured Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand pairs has dented India’s chances in this championship.
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To add to India’s woes, they are in Group D, dubbed as the ‘Group of Death’, with Asian champions Indonesia, European champions Denmark and England.
As only two teams from each group make it to the quarterfinals, India have a task at hand. India begin against Denmark.
All eyes will be on Sindhu and Lakshya to pull off singles wins. Even if they manage to win the singles, it is difficult to imagine the junior doubles teams getting past Indonesia and Denmark.
Both the badminton super powers have strong men’s singles and doubles teams.
