NEW DELHI, Jan 31: India have been handed a decent draw after being placed alongside Malaysia, UAE, and Kazakhstan in Group B at the Asia Mixed Team Championships scheduled to be held in Dubai from February 14 to 19.
A total of 17 teams will fight for honours at the continental championships and the draw for the same was unveiled on Tuesday at the Dubai Sports Council in presence of double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu.
The prestigious event, which will be returning after the last edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, will be held at the Dubai Exhibition Centre.
Defending champions China, Korea, Singapore and Uzbekistan are clubbed in Group A, while Group C comprises Indonesia, Thailand, Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon and 2017 champion Japan, Chinese Taipei, last edition’s bronze medallists Hong Kong and Pakistan are drawn in Group D.
China, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia are the top four seeded teams.
All the teams in the group will compete in round robin format with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage.
Each tie will comprise two singles and three doubles matches.
The Indian team consists of Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen, world No. 9 HS Prannoy, world No 5 Satwiksairaj Ranikreddy and Chirag Shetty, Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Goud P and Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautam, mixed doubles pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto.
India failed to cross the quarterfinal stage in the inaugural edition in 2017 and ended their campaign at the group stage in 2019. (PTI)
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