Lakshya Sen, who won the gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Kidambi Srikanth, who won the bronze medal, will spearhead India’s effort and be the country’s top medal hopes at the 2022 BWF World Championships, which get underway here on Monday. P.V. Sindhu will be absent from the competition due to injury.
Lakshya, who was seeded ninth, won the bronze medal at Huelva’s hosting of the competition in 2021. He wasn’t seeded going into the competition, but he managed to pull off several significant upsets, including beating Kevin Cordon, who had advanced to the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics.
The 21-year-old Indian finished third after losing to fellow countryman Kidambi Srikanth in the semifinals.
The 12th seed Kidambi Srikanth, who took home silver in 2021, will also be held to a high standard by India. He was the first Indian man to advance to the BWF World Championships finals and come away with a silver medal after falling to Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the previous final in straight sets.
In addition to Srikanth and Lakshya, B Sai Praneeth, the bronze medalist from the 2019 competition, and HS Prannoy can potentially shock you.
To place on the podium, the Indian men must beat out Viktor Axelsen, the first seed and current world champion. The winner of the All England Open has won 31 straight games. Yew, the reigning champion, is seeded eighth, followed by Lee Zii Jia, the fifth seed from Malaysia, and Anders Antonsen, the third seed from Denmark.
India will have high expectations for the gold medalists in the doubles competition from CWG 2022, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Due to stress fractures, both Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara of Japan will be absent from the women’s singles competition.
33 in the world At the Tokyo competition, Saina Nehwal, who was not seeded this time, will try to get back in shape. When Sindhu and Okuhara are not there, the former world number one will attempt to gain the upper hand. In the opening round, she will compete against Cheung Ngan Yi, who she has defeated three times in a row.
The 32-year-old Saina has won two medals from the World Championships: a silver in the 2015 competition and a bronze in 2017.
Akane Yamaguchi, the top seed and the current champion, is the favourite to win the women’s competition. She is followed by Tai Tzu-Ying, the second seed from Taiwan, and Chen Yufei, the fourth seed from China, who will compete in the event again after a one-year break.
Notably, India has won 12 medals at the world championships in badminton, but Sindhu’s one gold came in 2019. In terms of player presence in the world meet, India is third with 26 athletes, behind Japan (32) and Malaysia (27).
Indian squad for World Championships:
Men’s singles: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, B. Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy
Women’s singles: Saina Nehwal, Malvika Bansod
Men’s doubles: Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy, Krishna Prasad Garaga/Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjula, MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila
Women’s doubles: Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy, Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautam, Pooja Dandu/Sanjana Santosh
Mixed doubles: Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto and Venkat Gaurav Prasad/Juhi Dewangan
(Inputs from IANS)