India’s first-ever bronze medal at the Asia Badminton Mixed team championships has shown that the country can win the Sudirman Cup this year, feels former national coach Vimal Kumar.

India on Saturday narrowly went down 2-3 to formidable China in the semi-finals to sign off their campaign with a maiden bronze medal in Dubai. It was a creditable performance since India were without the services of an injured Satwiksairaj Rankireddy but the men’s pair of Chirag Shetty-Dhruv Kapila and young women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand dished out superlative shows to take India to the semi-finals.