Reigning world champion PV Sindhu will be in action in the season opener when the Hyderabad Hunters take on Chennai Superstarz on January 20 in Chennai as the Premier Badminton League (PBL) enters its fifth edition.
While Sindhu will be the star attraction for former champions Hyderabad Hunters, all eyes will be on Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Lakshya Sen from the Chennai franchise, both of whom had stellar seasons last year.
PBL will be hosted by Chennai for the first five days of the league before it moves to Lucknow on January 25, followed by seven days of badminton action in Hyderabad while the semi-finals and the grand finale will be staged in Bangalore.
The 21-day event will witness 24 ties being played, including three double-headers, all of which are to take place in Hyderabad. With one of the double-headers being scheduled in the weekend on February 1 that will see Pune 7 Aces take on North East Warriors and Awadhe Warriors clash with Chennai Superstarz.
While PV Sindhu picked the high-voltage World Championships quarter-final match between her and former World No. 1, Tai Tzu Ying, as her best match of 2019, it will be a repeat of that marquee clash when the two meet each other on January 31.
The much-awaited showdown comes in the third leg in Hyderabad when Sindhu’s Hunters lock horns with Tai’s Bengaluru Raptors. With the two representing the champion teams of the last two editions, there is no doubt that a tasty affair is on the cards.
“I had a great time playing in PBL last time. The format of the league is very exciting, and that is why I like to play in the league. I am very excited to join the Bengaluru Raptors team. I hope a lot of fans will come to the stadiums to watch the matches and my fans around the world will follow it on TV and online. I look forward to playing against all teams, especially against P V Sindhu,” said the Chinese Taipei ace Tai Tzu.
As the PBL returns to Chennai after two years, badminton lovers in the city would be blessed to watch Tai’s wizardry when the Raptors square off against the North East Warriors on January 21. With Chennai Superstarz and Bengaluru Raptors meeting in the same leg, it would be interesting to see Lakshya Sen and Sai Praneeth going head to head after their fabulous results last year.
The fifth edition of PBL will see the best of players go head to head as five Olympic medallists and 15 World Championships medallists will take part.
Another marquee clash that has all the ingredients to be a blockbuster is the one between Sindhu and former India Open champion Beiwen Zhang when the Hunters and Awadhe Warriors take on each other on Republic Day in Lucknow. After the enthralling final the two played at the India Open in 2018, where Zhang saved match points to deny Sindhu the title, this match is not to be missed.
2014 Commonwealth Games champion and 2019 Canada Open finalist Parupalli Kashyap will be leading the charge of two-time runners-up Mumbai Rockets when they lock horns with Sai Praneeth’s Bengaluru Raptors in Hyderabad on February 2, enabling fans to see an interesting match between two of India’s best men’s singles shuttlers.
Seven teams – Awadhe Warriors, Bengaluru Raptors, Mumbai Rockets, Hyderabad Hunters, Chennai Superstarz, North Eastern Warriors and Pune 7 Aces will slug it out for a prize purse of Rs 6 crore in four cities this time.
Here is the complete schedule of the fifth season.
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