The Indian men’s badminton team began its Thomas Cup campaign in an emphatic manner, thrashing Germany 5-0 here on Sunday.

World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen started the proceeding with an easy 21-16 21-13 win over world no 64 Max Weisskirchen. The doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had to dig deep as they were stretched to a three gamer 21-15, 10-21, 21-13 by Jones Ralfy Jansen and Marvin Seidel.