India defeated Kazakhstan 4–1 in the first group match of the Asia Team Badminton Championship on Tuesday. For India, former World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, and Shubhankar Dey won their respective singles matches. Srikanth defeated Dimitri Panarin 21-10 21-17 in 23 minutes. In the second singles, Sen defeated Arthur Niyazov 21-13 21-8 in 21 minutes. While Dey won a third singles match in 26 minutes. He defeated Khatimurat Kulmatov 21–11, 21–5 in straight sets.
At the same time, In doubles, the pair of Sai Praneeth and Chirag Shetty lost. They were beaten 21-18,16-21,19-21 by Arthur Niyazov-Dmitri Panarin. While the pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila won the second doubles match 21-14,21-8. This Indian duo defeated Nikita Bragin-Khaytmurat Kulmatov. India will now face Malaysia on Thursday.
The Indian men's team, which won the Bronze medal four years ago, was earlier placed in Group A along with Indonesia and hosts Philippines. But due to coronavirus, the host country had banned China and Hong Kong from participating in the championship. Due to this, the schedule had to be changed and the Indian team was placed in Group B along with Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Two top teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals.
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