PV Sindhu to lead India’s charge as World Badminton Championships kicks off on Monday

New Delhi: The Indian cricket team maybe in action in Sri Lanka but expect the focus to firmly shift towards Scotland as the World Badminton Championships kicks off on Monday. An Indian player is yet to win a gold at the tournament if you rewind back to the previous editions. But as many as five Indian shuttlers have been seeded this time around.

They include PV Sindhu (4) and Saina Nehwal (12) in the women’s singles and Srikanth Kidambi (8), Ajay Jayaram (13) and B. Sai Praneeth (15) in the men’s singles.

Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who clinched the 2016 China Open and 2017 India Open, will look to better the colour of the medal that she had won in the 2013 and 2014 editions. While Srikanth turns up in Scotland after three successive final finishes, Sindhu enters the event after a couple of quarterfinal finishes in the previous Super Series events of this season.

First Indian woman to win a silver at 2015 World Championship, Saina will also be in the reckoning and will look to brush aside any concern whatsoever regarding her fitness and put the best foot forward. Interestingly, Saina and Sindhu have got byes in the opening round.

Sindhu will open her campaign against either Korea's Kim Hyo Min or Egypt's Hadia Hosny in the second round and is likely to meet China's Sun Yu for a place at the quarterfinals.

Saina, on the other hand, will take on the winner of the match between Switzerland's Sabrina Jaquet and Ukraine's Natalya Voytsekh and is expected to clash with Korean second seed Sung Ji Hyun for a place in the pre-quarterfinals. (With PTI inputs)