Sudirman Cup badminton: India take on China, Thailand and Finland - watch live
Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and Ashwini Ponnappa lead a young Indian team as they aim to make it to the quarter-finals. Watch live!
The Indian badminton team will begin its Sudirman Cup 2021 campaign in Group A against Thailand at the Energia Arena Court in Vantaa, Finland on Sunday.
Defending champions China and hosts Finland are the other two teams in India’s group. India have to finish in the top-two in Group A to advance to the quarter-finals.
The Indian squad will have Olympians Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and Ashwini Ponnappa leading a young team.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu is not available after she wanted more time to recover post Tokyo 2020 while the pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pulled out of the event after the former fell ill.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will now shoulder the men’s doubles responsibilities at the event.
The Sudirman Cup is a mixed team competition where each tie consists of five matches - one each of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The team winning three of the five matches clinches the tie and gets one point in the group stage.
This year’s Sudirman Cup will have 16 teams divided into four groups. The top two from each group progress to the knockout stage.
The tournament was called off in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indian badminton group-stage schedule and live India start times for Sudirman Cup 2021
All times are in India standard time (IST)
Sunday, September 26 - India vs Thailand - 12:30 PM IST onwards
Monday, September 27 - India vs China - 12:30 PM IST onwards
Wednesday, September 29 - India vs Finland - Approx 6:30 PM IST onwards
Where to watch the Sudirman Cup 2021 live in India?
The Sudirman Cup 2021 will be telecast live on the Star Sports 3 TV channel in India.
Sudirman Cup live streaming will be available on the Disney+Hotstar website and app.
Indian badminton squad for Sudirman Cup 2021
Men: B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, Dhruv Kapila, MR Arjun
Women: Malvika Bansod, Aditi Bhatt, Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda, Ashwini Ponnappa, N Sikki Reddy