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The defending champions Chennai Smashers certainly look weakened after their star mixed doubles player, Gabrielle Adcock suffered a horrific ankle injury, that rendered her out of the rest of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) 2018. But the Smashers showed that they weren't demoralized by that unfortunate incident as they put up an all-round act for an astonishing 2-1 win over the high-flying Ahmedabad Smash Masters.
PV Sindhu was the main architect of that win, where she stunned the World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying in women's singles and then teamed up with B Sumeeth Reddy for a win in mixed doubles.
All eyes will thus be on the World Championships silver medallist after the way she performed against Ahmedabad. She will be facing the World No. 16 Kirsty Gilmour of the Bengaluru Blasters, who is coming off a loss in her last outing and can get quite erratic under pressure.
The Blasters slumped to a shock 2-3 defeat to the North Eastern Warriors in their last assignment and it would need a determined display by all their members to snatch a win from Chennai. World No. 1 and world champion Viktor Axelsen is certainly the player they are looking up to, but the Dane alone can't do the job for them.
Their second men's singles player, Chong Wei Feng too has to support Axelsen and so should the mixed doubles pair of Kim Sa Rang and N Sikki Reddy.
Here is all the information you need to know
Tournament name: Premier Badminton League Season 3
Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai
Date: Monday, January 8, 2018
Time: Chennai Smashers vs Bengaluru Blasters at 7pm IST
Channel: Star Sports 1/Star Sports 1 HD
Livestream information: Star Sports Hotstar
The squads:
Chennai Smashers - Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, Brice Leverdez, Aditya Joshi, Daniel Farid, PV Sindhu, Vrushali Gummadi, Yang Lee, B Sumeeth Reddy, Chris Adcock, Gabrielle Adcock (won't continue).
Bengaluru Blasters - Viktor Axelsen, Chong Wei Feng, Subhankar Dey, Kirsty Gilmour, Rituparna Das, Mathias Boe, Manu Attri, Kim Sa Rang, N Sikki Reddy, Sanjana Santosh.
