HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen will be at the forefront of India’s medal hunt at the BWF World Championships beginning here on Monday.

All eyes will also be on Satwiksaraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the country’s best doubles pair at world No. 2, as they look to better the bronze that they claimed in the last edition.

India have won 13 medals, including one gold, four silver and eight bronze medals since 1977 when the tournament first started, before turning into a biennial event from 1983 to 2005. It has been an annual event, with the exception of Olympic years, ever since.

The legendary Prakash Padukone was the first Indian to win a medal — a bronze — at the World Championships in 1983. Indians, led by PV Sindhu, have managed to win at least one medal since 2011. Sindhu has now been handed a bye and will play the winner of the match between Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara and Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen.

Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, however, swelled India’s medal tally with a silver and bronze in the 2021 edition, while Satwik and Chirag secured a bronze in 2022.

One player who has been lurking around the podium in the last editions is Prannoy, who finished at the quarter-final stage in both 2021 and 2022 and is among the favourites this time, given his consistent run in the last 12 months.

With a Malaysia Masters win and a final finish at Australian Open, Prannoy is in good shape. He will begin his campaign against Finland’s Kalle Koljonen, ranked 56th in the world.

Sen, too, will look to hang around for the weekend as he opens against world No. 110 Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius and is expected to meet Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin next.

Srikanth has been erratic this season with his game imploding at crucial junctures and he would look to turn it around quickly in the pre-Olympic season with Paris qualification on line.

PTI