KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia are set for another showdown with India in the mixed team final today with the former seeking to restore their battered pride against the Commonwealth's badminton powerhouse.
India blew away Singapore 3-0 yesterday to set up a repeat of the Gold Coast 2018 final where they ended Malaysia's hopes with a 3-1 win.
Despite being the top seeds this time, it will be a tall order for Malaysia to overcome a seemingly confident India, who will be keen to keep their momentum going after attaining several major successes in recent years.
These include Sindhu being crowned India's first world champion in 2019 and their men's team winning a historic Thomas Cup crown in May.
Hence, it will take something special for Malaysia if they are to wrest the gold from India to add to their previous title collection in 2006, 2010 and 2014.
In today's final, India are likely to clinch the women's singles point through the in-form Sindhu, who will face Goh Jin Wei.
World No 7 Sindhu, arriving in Birmingham on the back of her Singapore Open victory two weeks ago, should prove too strong for Jin Wei even if the Malaysian has shown promising signs since returning as a professional.
Sindhu flexed her muscles to thump Singapore's world No 19 Yeo Jia Min 21-11, 21-12 in the semis.
It will be also tough for Malaysia to nick a point from the men's singles with India having the luxury of fielding either world No 10 Lakhsya Sen or No 11 K. Srikanth.
World No 44 Tze Yong should face Lakhsya, who will be most likely retained following his convincing 21-18, 21-15 victory over world champion Loh Kean Yew.
Malaysia, however, have the edge when it comes to all their three doubles departments.
The team are expected to line up Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing in the men, women and mixed doubles respectively, and heavily rely on them to deliver the goods.
Aaron-Wooi Yik have not lost in any of their previous four encounters with Thomas Cup heroes Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, with the latest win coming at the Asia Championships in April.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing should return to the line-up unless the coaches continue to place their faith in the lower-ranked Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See who stunned world No 11 Marcus Ellis-Lauren Smith in the opening match during Malaysia's 3-0 win against England in Monday's semis.
But whoever get fielded, they have a massive responsibility as the mixed doubles will most likely be played as the first match of the day.
That's because India are expected to hand Satwiksairaj a double duty where he's expected to team up with Ashwini Ponappa in the mixed doubles.
In the Gold Coast, it was Satwiksairaj-Ponappa who plotted Malaysia's downfall by pulling off an upset against Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (they were Rio Olympics silver medallists) in the opening match.
If anything, Malaysia can certainly count on Pearly-Thinaah, who should be a shoo-in against world No 39 Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand.