After a successful inaugural season on 2014, the much-anticipated India’s badminton league is back after a two-year hiatus.
Earlier called as the Indian Badminton League, the tournament it is now re-christened as Premier Badminton and it comes with a new look, new teams and some exciting rules.
The world’s richest badminton league will be played from January 2 to January 17.
Six franchises will vie for top honours in the tournament, which will witness a total of 18 matches, including the semi-finals and the final.
The opening match of the league will witness Awadhe Warriors led by Saina Nehwal take on Mumbai Rockets here on Saturday.
With 2016 being an Olympic year, the PBL has acquired added importance. Despite facing its share of troubles, postponements and with two of its biggest draw — two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan and world no.1 women’s shuttler Carolina Marin giving it a miss — the second edition promises to be more entertaining and exciting.
The league will feature top shuttlers like former world no. 1 Lee Chong Wei, 2012 London Olympics silver medallist Mathais Boe, Russia’s Vladimir Ivanov and Joachim Fischer.
The marquee event will have top Indian stars like Saina, P.V. Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap, H.S. Pranoy, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnapa and others.
The format of the league has been tweaked with an aim to infuse more action with shorter ties and addition of a ‘Trump Match’.
Each league stage as well as the knockout tie will have five matches — two men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles and mixed doubles. All matches will be played as best of three games, for 15 points and sudden death at 14-14.
This season, the tournament will have two new teams in Bengaluru Topguns and Chennai Smashers.
Delhi Acers, Mumbai Rockets, Hyderabad Hunters and Awadhe Warriors complete the line-up.
The top four teams after the league stage will compete in the semi-finals.
Going into their first match, Mumbai face an uphill task against a balanced Warriors outfit. Despite having the home advantage, the Pranoy-led team will have to display their top game against the likes of Saina and Chong Wei.
The Rockets will also have talented women shuttlers such as Ruthvika Gadde, Denmark’s Kamilla Juhl along with the Chinese duo of Han Li and Liu Zi Die. The responsibility of winning the men’s singles will be on Prannoy and Gurusaidutt’s shoulders.
Mumbai appear weak on paper and may require an extraordinary effort to steal a win against a strong Awadhe team.
For the Lucknow-based franchisee, the presence of world no. 2 Saina would be enough to provide the confidence to the squad.
Fresh from an international break, the Hyderabad-based shuttler will be keen to prove a point ahead of the Olympic qualifiers scheduled later this year.
What is a trump match
This season the format has been tweaked with the introduction of the ‘trump match’. Each team will have to strategically decide on which of their five matches will be a trump match before the tie.
Trump matches will be applicable in the league as well as knockout stage. A team cannot put the same player in the trump matches proposed by them more than twice in the league stage and once in the knockout stage.
Scoring: Victory in a match gives one point, loss means no points. In a trump match, the team who call for the trump gets two points for victory and a loss will result in negative scoring. (-1)
