Ace shuttlers PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and H.S Prannoy will spearhead 20-member strong Indian contingent’s challenge in the Asian Badminton Team Championships to be held in Malaysia from 6 to 11 February.

Leading the charge in the men’s singles category will be the third ranked Indian in the world, Kidambi Srikanth and will have strong back up from H.S Prannoy, Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma who have proven that they can win against the best in the world on a given day.

In the women section,PV Sindhu will take the baton in her hands along with Saina Nehwal and Krishna Priya and Ruthvika Gaade will also watch from close quarters.

In the doubles Indian campaign will be led by the prodigious pairing of Satwik Sairaj/Chirag Shetty, World No. 32 Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy and Shlok Ramachandran/MR Arjun, while in the women section Ashwini Ponappa/Sikki Reddy will be handed the mantle and will be backed up by Prajakta Sawant/ Sanyogita and Rituparna Das/Mithila U K.

“After a very successful 2017 for Indian badminton on the world circuit, we want to start off 2018 by displaying our dominance in the Asian Badminton Team Championships,” said Badminton Association of Indiua (BAI) general secretary, Anup Narang.

“We were unfortunate to lose out in the knockout stages last year and with the current team we are confident of a good show and a podium finish,” he added.

In Vietnam last year, the Indian contingent started off on a winning note as they thumped Singapore 4-1. The only loss of the tie came in the first clash, where the mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra lost out in straight sets but the rest of the team were up to the task as they won the next four and set the tone for the team.

However, the Indians faced a powerful Korean team in their next group stage encounter and went down 1-4 to the eventual runners up of the championship. Nonetheless, with a win in the group stages against Singapore, they managed to make their way into the knockout phase where they couldn’t overcome Thailand in a close-fought encounter and lost 2-3.

Although, the tournament will be a close fought affair with the Chinese and the Japanese team among the other strong contenders going all guns blazing, the Indian contingent will be positive of a better showing this time around.