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The fourth season of the Premier Badminton League is all set to commence from 22nd December 2018. A new team Pune 7 Aces have been added this season making it a nine team affair. All these nine teams have enough firepower and would be vying for the ultimate goal of winning the title.
Ahmedabad Smash Masters are returning for their second season this year after a disappointing loss in the semi-final in the first appearance. The franchise is based in Ahmedabad and its home stadium is The Arena by TransStadia. The Ahmedabad based franchise was founded after the second season and is owned by Padmanabh Sports Pvt Ltd.
After a commendable performance in the inaugural season where they lost a closely contested semi-final game, PBL 2018 could be pivotal for them. Ahmedabad smash masters took a huge risk by not retaining their star from previous season, HS Prannoy. However, their picks this season is more of a mixed bag collections.
The team has a solid backbone and could prove to be darkhorse in this season. Ahmedabad team has world number three men’s singles player Viktor Axelsen of Denmark as their captain. Their roaster also consists of India’s first choice mixed duo, N Sikki Reddy and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy which could be a difficult proposition to face for opponents in front of the home crowd. Saurabh Verma is the only Indian known face in the men’s singles section.
The one section where the team could be considered weak is women’s singles, where the only known face is Scotland’s world number 25 Kirsty Gilmour. The completely untested Vaishnavi Bhale is the second women singles player.
They have a mixed bag and the one visible weakness they have is the lack of strong backup in the singles event. Though, they could still prove their mettle and can shock their way to the finals.
Here is a full schedule of their journey in this season of PBL:
Match #1
Date: 23 December
Opponent: North Eastern Warriors
City: Mumbai
Timing (IST): 19:00
Match #2
Date: 26 December
Opponent: Delhi Dashers
City: Hyderabad
Timing (IST): 19:00
Match #3
Date: 28 December
Opponent: Bengaluru Raptors
City: Hyderabad
Timing (IST): 16:00
Match #4
Date: 30 December
Opponent: Chennai Smashers
City: Pune
Timing (IST): 16:00
Match #5
Date: 4 January
Opponent: Awadhe Warriors
City: Ahmedabad
Timing (IST): 19:00
Match #6
Date: 6 January
Opponent: Hyderabad Hunters
City: Ahmedabad
Timing(IST): 19:00
(With inputs from Anubhav Bajpeyee)
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