Asia’s best to slug it out for top honours

The Badminton Asia Team Championships, beginning here on Monday, might be bereft of some of the big names but the tournament’s importance cannot be underplayed.

Marquee players like Saina Nehwal, men’s world no. 1 Chen Long, no. 2 Lee Chong Wei and the fifth-ranked Lin Dan have pulled out but the event — an Asian continental qualifier for the Thomas and Uber Cups — will award players with crucial Olympic points.

With the Rio Games just a few months away, the shuttlers will be keen to play their hearts out.

India will feel keenly the absence of Saina, recovering from a foot injury, but the rest of the team, which includes in-form P.V. Sindhu and newly-crowned South Asian Games champion Ruthvika Shivani, seems well-equipped to take on Japan and Singapore in Group D.

Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, K. Maneesha, Sikki Reddy, P.C. Thulasi and Arathi Sara Sunil complete the women’s squad.

In the men’s section, Parupalli Kashyap is back after a short injury lay-off, so the pressure would be on Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and H.S. Prannoy to first gain and then maintain momentum in the singles. Manu Attri, B. Sumeeth Reddy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar are the doubles specialists for the hosts.

In the men’s Group A, India have a tricky prospect of getting past China and Singapore to have a shot at qualifying for the Thomas Cup. India open their campaign on Wednesday, with both the men and women taking on Singapore.

Indian men play China on Thursday while the women face Japan.

On Monday, in the men’s section, Korea face the Philippines, China clash with Singapore, Indonesia take on the Maldives while the Chinese Taipei play Thailand.

In the women’s competition, Thailand run into Sri Lanka and China take on Hong Kong.

The top two from each of the four groups will enter the quarter-finals, to be played on Friday. The semi-finalists from the men’s and women’s competitions will qualify for the Thomas and Uber Cups respectively.