Drawn alongside strong teams such as China and Indonesia, India would find the going tough, especially in the absence of Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal, at the Sudirman Cup Mixed team Championship starting here tomorrow.
The Indian team suffered a major blow as far as the women's team was concerned when Saina and doubles specialist Jwala Gutta pulled out of event.
Saina opted out of the competition, to be held from May 19 to 26, after she failed to recover fully from a hairline fracture on the small toe of her left foot.
The world number two had suffered the fracture before the India Open Super Series last month and aggravated the injury during the tournament, where she had crashed out in the second round.
With hardly any time left to name a replacement for Saina, the Malaysian Grand Prix Gold champion, world no. 13 Sindhu is all set to spearhead the Indian challenge in the women's singles.
National coach Pullela Gopichand said while Saina's absence would be a big blow but it would a great chance for the 17-year-old Sindhu to stand up and be counted.
"India had always looked to Saina during big events. But the unfortunate injury has upset our plans. But Sindhu has made good strides in the last few months. It will be a huge experience to play in team championship at a young age," Gopichand had said.
In the men's singles, meanwhile, Indian hopes would rest on the shoulders of world no. 11 Parupalli Kashyap. The other player would be Anand Pawar, who reached his first ever semifinal of a Super Series during the India Open in New Delhi last month.
Ranked 10th in the world in this year edition of Sudirman Cup, India are placed in a tough Group 'A' of Level 1 alongside defending champions China and inaugural champs Indonesia.
While it will be almost an impossible job to breach the Chinese Wall, who have the number one ranked combination in women's and mixed doubles, India would fancy their chances against Indonesia.
