Srikanth leads in Kazakhstan rout

Manila, February 11

Kidambi Srikanth spearheaded India’s 4-1 mauling of Kazakhstan in their opening group match to brighten their chances of reaching the quarterfinals of the Asia Team Badminton Championships.

Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and Subhankar Dey won their respective singles matches easily. Srikanth took just 23 minutes to beat Dmitriy Panarin 21-10 21-7 while Sen was even quicker, notching up a 21-13 21-8 win over Artur Niyazov in 21 minutes. Dey beat Khaitmurat Kulmatov 21-11 21-5 in 26 minutes in the third singles.

B Sai Praneeth, who was not fielded in the singles, teamed up with Chirag Shetty in the doubles, but lost to the Kazakh pair of Niyazov and Panarin 21-18 16-21 19-21. However, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila beat the Kazakh duo of Nikita Bragin and Khaitmurat Kulmatov 21-14 21-8 in the second doubles match.

The Indian men’s team, which won the bronze in the 2016 Championships, was initially clubbed with two-time defending champions Indonesia and hosts Philippines in Group A but with China and Hong Kong not playing due to a travel ban on them by the Philippines because of the coronavirus outbreak, the draw was re-worked. The Indian team has been placed in Group B alongside Malaysia and Kazakhstan. The two top teams in each of the four groups will make it to the quarterfinals. India play Malaysia on Thursday. — PTI