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Doubles pairing will be key for NE team

By The Assam Tribune

GUWAHATI, Dec 21: As the bigger and grander edition of the Vodafone Premier Badminton League (PBL) Season 3 inches closer and is just two days away, new entrants to the League � North-Eastern Warriors will be raring to go into their debut season with all guns blazing as they take on last year semifinalists Hyderabad Hunters in their first tie here at the Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium on Sunday. The league will kick start on Saturday.

With the new season having two more teams added to the roster, it will surely be challenging for everyone to make it to the top four and book their place into the next stage of the tournament.

The only team from the Northeastern part of the country will be led by Ajay Jayaram who was optimistic about his team�s composition and said, �It is going to be a tough one (tournament) for sure. Every team has big names but if you look at our team, we have the perfect balance.�

�Although a lot of would depend on how Tzu Wei Wang and me perform but I also feel that our strongest point would be the Korean pair in the doubles section as they are a dominating force and will determine how our results turn out to be,� he added.

Jayaram, who has reached the finals of the PBL consecutively in the past two years with two different teams, will surely look to make it a hat-trick of finals leading his new team to the last stage of the tournament and make their debut season a memorable one.

�Yes, I have been lucky to reach the finals twice in a row with two great teams but I don�t think that would add any pressure to my performances as I will go out there and perform to my best and try and bring in the desired result for the team,� Jayaram noted.

The Warriors will be coached by Olympian Nitin Kanetkar, who will also be making his debut on the PBL front and had good things to say about his team after their first combined practice session.

�We have the World No. 10 (Tzu Wei Wang) and Ajay Jayaram who looked in great touch and everyone is getting to know each other and trying to understand each other�s game especially in the doubles section which looks like a strong point for our side. We are raring to go and we will surely make the home fans proud of their team,� the coach concluded on a positive note. � Agencies

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