It’s arguably the weakest and most vulnerable phase for Indian badminton in the last few years, heading into the prestigious All England. There have been consistent headlines by one or the other player in the lead-up to the tournament but over the last decade, other than Saina Nehwal making the 2015 final, nobody really came close to equalling Pullela Gopichand’s last triumph of 2001.

Now, with the pressure of Olympic qualification and the additional dread of Covid-19, India’s disappointing results on the circuit over the last six months are painting a dire picture from Birmingham.

There’s 12,000 points for the winners: something that’ll swell PV Sindhu’s already impressive tally but crumbs of which are life-support for K Srikanth and Saina, who are desperate for points.

She starts out against American Beiwen Zhang against whom she narrowly leads 5-4. While the last encounter went to the American, Sindhu can get really brutal against the World No. 14 crowd-funded shuttler, keeping her down to single-digit game scores often. There’s a chance to avenge Sung Ji Hyun for the first-round ouster last year, next, and familiar foes Nozomi Okuhara and Chen Yufei strewn in her path towards finally grabbing that one crown eluding Indian women.

Saina has built herself a nice obstacle path. She is clearly struggling to lock the Tokyo qualification and has drawn the indomitable Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in Round 1. “She’s waiting for people to count her out and come back with a vengeance, she’s badminton’s Nadal,” Sridhar warns. Saina has beaten Yamaguchi only twice, losing eight times and save the thin thread of form she spun in Spain a fortnight back, has nothing to back her as going in as the favourite. “She won’t start as favourite, but can beat Akane,” Sridhar says.

Yamaguchi won the Thailand Masters beating back Carolina Marin’s rampage, but Saina might well want to make the most of what could be her final appearance at the All England, should injuries continue to bother her. Then again, she might stick around just to trash such proclamations about the end of the line. MC Mary Kom is going to Tokyo at 37; Saina can get it into her head she’s not done at 30 despite injuries tugging her back.

Two singles shuttlers who’ll go about their business with heads down are B Sai Praneeth, most likely headed to Tokyo and starting against Chinese Zhao Jun Peng, and India’s own rookie Lakshya Sen whose every win will be celebrated with an eye on the future, starting with Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu.

The festering open wound that no one can ignore is Kidambi Srikanth making heavy weather of Tokyo qualification. His first-round opponent, China’s Chen Long had a Srikanthesque follow-up to his Olympic title: that is, he completely disappeared from podiums. The 31-year-old barely challenged the rising Kento Momota and looks worryingly harmless as a rival though he’s World No 5. He lost three tournament finals in 2019, winning the French though, and Srikanth ought to back himself to take his chances at slashing away at the Chinese for he desperately needs to defend his semifinal points.