Birmingham, United Kingdom: Leading shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth will spearhead the Indian challenge at this week’s $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) All England Open Badminton Championships at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina will take on a qualifier in the first round of the Superseries Premier event on Wednesday. She is expected to sail into the quarter-finals as another qualifier will be her challenger should she progress to the second round.

Her likely opponent in the last eight will be former world champion Wang Yihan of China. Though Wang has dropped to fifth place in the rankings, she is a tough competitor.

The pressure of carrying Indian hopes in the women’s singles is high on world No. 3 Saina as two-time World Championships bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu has withdrawn due to a stress fracture on her left foot. Moreover, Olympic champion Li Xuerui and former World No. 1 and defending champion Wang Shixian are gearing up to bid for the title.

In the men’s singles competition, world No. 5 Srikanth will face a wily opponent in world No. 14 Kento Momota of Japan. Both have an equal share of their four previous career meetings.

Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap will also have a tough task in the first round, as the world No. 12 will meet seventh-ranked Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei.

World No. 18 H.S. Prannoy will face French player Brice Leverdez, while Anand Pawar and Ajay Jayaram will aim to qualify to the main round on Tuesday.

In the women’s doubles, 2011 World Championships bronze medal-winning Indian pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will face the Malaysian team of Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Soong Fie Cho.

In the men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will be up against the Indonesian pair of Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo. D. Guru Prasad and Venkatesh Prasad will test themselves in the qualifying round, as will S. Sanjeeth and Jagadish Yadav.

In the mixed doubles, the Indo-Russian combination of Ponnappa and Vladimir Ivanov will face the Danish pair of Mathias Christiansen and Lena Grebak.

Only two Indians — Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand — have won the All England Open in the past.