India start favourites against Kazakhstan in Badminton Asia Mixed Team C'ships

Spearheaded by a fitagain and rejuvenated PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy India will fancy their chances against Kazakhstan in their opening Group B tie at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships 2023 starting here on TuesdayTwotime Olympic medallist and world No7 Sindhu has recovered completely from a stress fracture that kept her out of action for five months last year and is gunning for success in the new seasonAfter winning the gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games the injury forced Sindhu to pull out of the World Championships and also missed the remainder of the last seasonHaving made a scratchy start to the new season in the Malaysia Open and India Open at home Sindhu is itching for success and would be going full throttle hereSindhus backup in the womens singles is 32ndranked Aakarshi Kashyap winner of the Bangladesh International Challenge last monthThe mens singles will be led by world No8 Prannoy and will also have world No10 Lakshay SenIn mens doubles Chirag Shetty will partner Dhruv Kapila in the absence of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy who has pulled out of the event due to a hip injuryThe other Indian pair in the mens doubles is Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Goud PIn Satwiks absence the mens doubles remains Indias weakest link as it will be very difficult for Kapila to pair up with Shetty and deliver against the top mens combinations of other Asian countriesCommonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be the lead pair in womens doubles and will also have Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam as backup Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto will be the only Indian pair to shoulder the mixed doubles dutiesAlso Read Lakshya Sen is Sunil Gavaskar new badminton heroPlayers ranked in the top10 received direct entries while the rest of the squad was chosen through selection trialsIndias toughest opponents in the group will be Commonwealth Games champions Malaysia against whom they lost in Birmingham The other team is host UAEThe top two teams from each of the four groups will qualify for the quarterfinals and barring upsets India and Malaysia are expected to progress from Group BBut the topper of the group will be decided after Indias second tie which is against Malaysia on Wednesday before they round off their league engagements against UAE on ThursdayLakshya Sen expects India to sail into the quarterfinalsWe have a strong team The draw of group stage is okay should not be difficult I think we can qualify for the quarterfinal In knockout it will be one match at a time Sen told PTIIn the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2017 India made the quarterfinals while in 2019 they failed to get past the group stageThe tournament returns after three years as the 2021 edition was cancelled due to the COVID19 pandemicSeventeen countries will fight it out for the continental crown in the event to be held from February 14 to 19 at the Dubai Exhibition CentreChina Japan Indonesia and Malaysia are the top four seeds in the tournamentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever