Indian men rout Maldives in badminton

Srikanth started the proceedings, easily outplaying Shaheed Hussein Zayan 21-5 21-6 in the first singles match, before B Sai Praneeth took just 17 minutes to get the better of Ahmed Nibal 21-10 21-4. 

The rest of the tie followed a similar script as Sameer Verma toyed with Mohamed Arsalaan Ali 21-5 21-1 to take an unassailable 3-0 lead. In the men’s doubles matches too, the Indians hardly broke a sweat. 

In the first doubles match, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Shaheed Hussein Zayan and Shaheem Hassan Afsheem 21-8 21-8 before Arjun M R teamed up with Shlok Ramachandran to tame the pair of Mohamed Arsalaan Ali and Ahmed Nibal 21-2 21-5. 

The Asia Team championship is also a qualifier for the Thomas Cup Final with the semi-finalists earning the right to play in Bangkok in May. India men will next play formidable Indonesia on Thursday.