The draw for the Badminton Asia Team Championship (BATC) in Hyderabad, India has been revealed and despite the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) confidence of the national team being able to make it to the quarter finals, Zulfadli Zulkiffli claims otherwise and stated that we should not underestimate group mates Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Yesterday’s official draw saw team Malaysia placed in Group B alongside defending champions Japan, Sri Lanka and Nepal for the men’s section. Regarding the line-up, technical director of BAM, Morten Frost remained optimistic of the team advancing to at least the quarters of the championship, which is serving a qualifier for the Kunshan Thomas Cup in May.
However, Zulfadli’s opinion contradicted the association’s and stated that despite being ranked higher than the two countries worldwide, the national squad needs to be prudent of their results and take every match seriously to make their predictions into reality.
“We need to remind ourselves about other squads’ capability. Don’t think of the draw too lightly, if we can, we need to present out best to become the best in the group,” he told Harian Metro yesterday.
At the same time, the youth champion claimed that the fresh talents placed in the squad line-up needs to perform well enough to provide a challenge to past champions Japan.
“Even though the squad consists of juniors, we need to be spirited and give some pressure to Japan as they will be sending in their mains quad. Fear no opponents.”
Zulfadli will be heading to Thailand this week to take part in the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold before heading to Hyderabad for the BATC.
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