Asian Games: Indian men's badminton team seeded fourth, women's team unseeded

Indian men's badminton team will enter the 19th Asian Games as fourth-seeded in team competition while the women's team will go unseeded in Hangzhou, China, in seedings released by Badminton Asia on Tuesday.

In men's team events, defending champion and host China has been seeded second while 2018 Asiad silver medallist, Indonesia is the top seed in Hangzhou. Former bronze medallist, Japan is seeded third.

Currently Thomas Cup winners, the Indian team is seeded fourth and will directly play in the quarter-finals on 29th September.

Led by World Championships bronze medalist HS Prannoy, the Indian men's team consists of Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, Mithun Manjunath, doubles pair Satwik Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila/Arjun MR.

The men's team will look to end a 37-year wait for a medal in the team event as India last won a medal in the 1986 Asian Games.

In the women's event, 2018 silver medallist China is the top seed, ahead of Korea while Japan, gold medallist in Jakarta 2018, and Thailand, have been seeded third and fourth respectively.

In the women's team competition, host China will be joined by 10 other countries. They are Korea, Japan, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong China, Maldives, Mongolia, and Nepal.

Indian women's team will be led by double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu along with Ashmita Chaliha, Anupama Upadhyaya, Malvika Bansod and doubles pairs Gayatri Gopichand-Treesa Jolly and Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto.

India won a bronze medal in the women's team event in the 2014 Asian Games and the team filled with youngsters will look to throw a surprise to the other teams.

The women's team will start their campaign on 28th September in the elimination round.