India take on top seeds China in the men's quarter-final of Badminton Asia Team Championships in Alor Setar, Malaysia on Friday, February 9.
Kidambi Srikanth-led India progressed to the knockout stages after finishing second in Group D. They had blanked group minnows Philippines and Maldives but lost to holders Indonesia 3-2 on Thursday.
World number five Srikanth suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Jonathan Christie as the tie swung in Indonesia's favour early in the day.
On the other hand, China decimated Hong Kong and Singapore and topped Group C to enter the quarter-final stage of the tournament. Despite not having top-ranked stars of the likes of Chen Long, Lin Dan and Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen and Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan, the powerhouses of world badminton have been on top of their game.
However, their first big test of the tournament will be against a full-strength India, who are looking strong on paper.
India start as favorites
Despite the absence of world number 10 HS Prannoy, India have the likes of Srikanth, Singapore Open 2017 winner Sai Praneeth and world number 42 Sameer Verma in their singles line-up for Friday's tie.
Srikanth will face world number seven Shi Yuqi, whom he has defeated thrice in their four international meetings.
Meanwhile, Praneeth, who has remained unbeaten in the ongoing tournament, will face lower-ranked Qiao Bin, whom he defeated enroute to the top step of the podium in Singapore last year.
India will also start as overwhelming favorites to win the doubles rubbers as their pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty and Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy face the second-string Chinese doubles units.
When is the tie and how to watch it live
The quarter-final tie between the men's teams of India and China will start at 5pm local time, 2:30pm IST, 9am GMT.
Live streaming and TV coverage
India: TV: DSport; Live streaming: Watch DSport; DSport on Jio TV, Airtel TV
Malaysia: TV: Astro Supersport 4; Live streaming: Astro Go
Live scores of all the matches can be found here.
Order of play for India vs China quarter-final
- Men's singles 1 - Kidambi Srikanth vs Shi Yuqi
- Men's doubles 1 - Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty vs He Jiting/Tan Qiang
- Men's singles 2 - Sai Praneeth vs Qiao Bin
- Men's doubles 2 - Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy vs Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong
- Men's singles 3 - Sameer Verma vs Zhao Junpeng
