Badminton players gear up for the World Championship

INDIAN BADMINTON PLAYERS are preparing themselves for the upcoming World Championships which will be held in Jakarta from 10th-16th August and most of the players have already reached the venue.

The Indian team looks solid and have players in each category with Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu  leading the women's challenge, while third-seeded Kidambi Srikanth along with Paruppalli Kashyap (10th) and HS Prannoy (11th) expected to do well in the men's section.

 Saina who is seeded no. 2, will have to try hard this year as she has never gone beyond  the quarter-final stage in the competition, while PV Sindhu is looking for a hat-trick this year as she has won bronze medals in the previous years (2013 & 2014).

Off to Indonesia😊✈.. #KL airport# slpy talks😝😝#exciting#✌ pic.twitter.com/MMh53YFQPd

— Pvsindhu (@Pvsindhu1) August 8, 2015

Srikanth may not have been in good form this year, but is positive of winning a medal at the championships. He told IANS:

"I have a chance of winning a medal if I can play my best in every game. The draw... well you can't choose it and I should be prepared to play anyone,"

On the other hand, P Kashyap, has been constantly training hard to regain his fitness and stamina for the event so that he could put up a tough fight. This year has not been that great for him, but he hopes that the break he had taken by skipping the Chinese Taipei Open would have helped him get back to his game and perform well.

HS Prannoy who just recovered from a toe injury does not look hopeful to perform well at the championships, he told in an interview to Firstpost.

"My stamina isn't where it should be and honestly, I expect to get past the first two rounds and then it will get difficult. I know that my ranking is going to fall pretty rapidly now -- I have a lot of points to defend and given my fitness levels, that is a difficult task at hand."

Off to world championships! @bwfmedia @PRANNOYHSPRI @srikidambi #comeon #bwfworldchampionships pic.twitter.com/sO0qBSBJ1I

— Parupalli Kashyap (@parupallik) August 6, 2015

In the doubles category the combination of women's players comprising Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are high on confidence about winning a medal after their win at the Canada Open last month. Another women's doubles team include the young pair of Dhanya Nair and Mohita Sachdev, the latter, a Delhi girl. It is after 22 years that a shuttler from Delhi will play at the World Championships. The men's category include Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy and Akshay Dewalkar-Pranav Chopra.

Just arrived in #Jakarta #WorldChampionships with one and only @P9Ashwini 😎 pic.twitter.com/PKfeY3uAB4

— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) August 8, 2015

In the mixed doubles category are Arun Vishnu-Aparna Balan, Kona Tarun-N Sikki Reddy.

#onthewaytoworldchampionships# pic.twitter.com/oUtPiLaWYy

— sikkireddy (@sikkireddy) August 7, 2015

See below for the first round draw for the Indian shuttlers: