India's shuttlers, defending champions in this event, are in cruise mode. A day after blanking Pakistan, they came up with a similar performance against Sri Lanka, winning 5-0 to top Group 'A' and qualify for the knockouts with still one match left in the round-robin stage.
With Sri Lanka defeating Australia 3-2 on Friday and Australia downing Pakistan 3-2 on Saturday, India's progress to the quarterfinal was assured.
Confident of trouncing Sri Lanka, India tried different combinations. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy paired up with Ashwini Ponnappa, Chirag Shetty teamed up with Sumeeth Reddy and Lakshya Sen and Akarshi Kashyap replaced Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu respectively.
A member of the team told TOI that the management is keeping all its options open after a Covid scare in the women's hockey team. By virtue of topping the group, India may get a weak opponent in the quarterfinal. The draw will be released on Sunday.
Satwik-Ashwini, who starred at the Gold Coast CWG, started the proceedings for India. Though the scratch combination looked a bit rusty at the start, it was only a matter of time before they got their bearings and dispatched their opponents, Sachin Dias and Thilini Hendahewa, 21-14, 21-9 to give a 1-0 lead for India.
Lakshya Sen, who will most probably be fielded if India face Singapore, made it 2-0 for India. Lakshya defeated Lankan veteran Niluka Karunaratne 21-18, 21-5.
