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It’s time to witness some powerful smashes and deft touches at the net as India is welcomes the 2016 Premier Badminton League (PBL). The league, which gets underway on January 2, 2016, has some potentially exciting matches in store involving talented Indian players that will keep the fans on tenterhooks.The PBL rules call for five sets of matches in each tie – men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, mixed doubles and men’s singles – that throw up some interesting player combinations from the six teams.Here’s a look at five thrilling match-ups that will keep the fans enthralled over the course of the 16-day badminton extravaganza.
#5 Manu Attri (Mumbai Rockets) vs B Sumeeth Reddy (Bengaluru Topguns)
Much like Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, India’s No. 1 men’s doubles duo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy find themselves rooting for different teams. A Mumbai Rockets vs Bengaluru Topguns showdown will pit the 17th-ranked doubles players opposite each other.
Attri and Reddy, who honed their skills at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, will be playing the PBL after the biggest achievement of their careers. The duo clinched the Mexico City Grand Prix title recently and will be eager to replicate that form for their respective teams.
Reddy, as mentioned earlier, will join forces with the veteran Ashwini Ponnappa in mixed doubles, and in men’s doubles he can team up with the likes of Thien How Moon and JF Nielsen. Attri of the Mumbai Rockets, meanwhile, has World No. 2 Kamilla Juhl as his mixed doubles partner. The men’s doubles squad too is formidable and comprises the reigning All England Open winner Mathias Boe, World No. 11 Vladimir Ivanov and the 51st ranked Chayut T.
Needless to say, for both Reddy and Attri, it will be an enriching experience to rub shoulders with so many badminton icons.
#4 Jwala Gutta (Hyderabad Hunters) vs Ashwini Ponnappa (Bengaluru Topguns)
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have long been flying the tricolour high in the women’s doubles circuit. Together they have struck gold at the Commonwealth Games and even captured the bronze at the World Championships. This year, they tasted success at the Canada Open and climbed to their career-best ranking of 10th.
Badminton aficionados will thus be curious to see how these two doubles partners fare when they are put in rival camps. With mixed doubles being the only mandatory doubles match involving the women shuttlers, Gutta will display her skills alongside the legendary Carsten Mogensen and Markis Kido for the Hyderabad Hunters. Among the homegrown players, she will have K Nandagopal and Satwik Sai Raj as her partners.
Ponnappa, meanwhile, will be spearheading the mixed doubles team for the Bangalore Topguns alongside her compatriot B Sumeeth Reddy. The foreign recruits who can team up with Ponnappa are the World No. 32 Thien How Moon, former top-ranked JF Nielsen, Robert Blair and Khim Wah Lim.
The advantage of facing one’s own doubles partner is that one knows the partner’s weaknesses very well and can attack accordingly. It will be very interesting to see who comes up trumps in this encounter.
#3 HS Prannoy (Mumbai Rockets) vs Kidambi Srikanth (Bengaluru Topguns)
Two friends and training partners of almost the same age will be locking horns when the Mumbai Rockets and the Bengaluru Topguns clash at the 2016 PBL. HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth are two of the brightest and most diligent young talents to emerge from the Gopichand Badminton Academy in recent times.
It was the younger friend – the 22-year-old Srikanth – who skyrocketed to fame and fortune in the closing stages of the 2014 season with his upset of Lin Dan en route to the China Open crown. Srikanth’s form, however, somewhat faded away after a scintillating display in the early part of 2015.
But the World No. 9 has begun his resurgence as evidenced by his final appearance at the Indonesia Masters in December. The PBL is the perfect platform for the India Open Superseries champion to get his confidence back, especially against someone like HS Prannoy, who too stuttered in the second half of 2015.
That said, Srikanth needs to be wary of the 20th-ranked Prannoy as the 23-year-old competes with him well. Even though Srikanth holds a 2-1 edge, two of their three showdowns went the distance. That itself promises that this meeting will be an entertaining contest, replete with some brilliant shot-making.
#2 Parupalli Kashyap (Hyderabad Hunters) vs Kidambi Srikanth (Bengaluru Topguns)
When two marquee Indian shuttlers meet, excitement reaches fever pitch! There is little doubting that this men’s match-up will draw huge crowds.
Kidambi Srikanth currently occupies the 9th spot in the world rankings while Parupalli Kashyap is placed six rungs lower. But what is interesting is the fact that the higher-ranked Srikanth has never managed to beat his senior compatriot, and has a 0-2 losing record.
Both those meetings took place this season – at the Syed Modi Badminton Championships in January and more recently, at the Japan Open. And Srikanth failed to take even a game off his academy-mate, which makes this PBL face-off more intriguing.
Hyderabad Hunters’ Kashyap, however, will be the less –favoured player this time as he is coming off an injury layoff. The 29-year-old, who suffered from a muscle rupture at the French Open in October, can be expected to be rusty.
Srikanth, who showed encouraging signs towards the end of the 2015 season, should look to capitalize on that to put the Bengaluru Topguns in command.
#1 Saina Nehwal (Awadhe Warriors) vs PV Sindhu (Chennai Smashers)
This match will be the cynosure of all eyes. World No. 2 Saina Nehwal and the 12th-ranked PV Sindhu have been the torchbearers of Indian badminton for quite some time now, and Indian fans will be eagerly waiting to see them cross swords at the 2016 PBL.
The golden girls of Indian badminton last met nearly two years ago, at the 2014 India Grand Prix Gold final, in which Saina emerged victorious 21-14, 21-17.
However, this time the 20-year-old Sindhu is the one who is coming high on confidence after capturing her third consecutive Macau Open title just a few days back.
Saina, on the other hand, is still dealing with a few niggling injuries and will take some more time to regain her full fitness. Nevertheless, the former top-ranked player, who reached the All England Open and the World Championships finals this year, is always a tough challenge for any opponent.
The Vimal Kumar protégé won the Indian Badminton League in 2013 when she was a part of the Hyderabad Hotshots. The 25-year-old will be keen to use her valuable experience to bring home the PBL title to the Awadhe Warriors this time.
