Indonesia is struggling to find rightful successors for the illustrious shuttlers.

The red-and-white team has been drawn in a group with two European teams, Denmark and England. The cup will be held at the Guangxi Sports Center in Nanning, China, from May 19 to 26.

Indonesia’s only victory at the tournament was at the cup’s debut in 1989 in Jakarta. The last time Indonesia finished as a runner-up was in 2007 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Looking at the composition of players in the current national squad, badminton observer Broto Happy said they needed to work extra hard as their opponents in the group stage were tough rivals.

“We don’t want a repeat of Gold Coast [Australia] two years ago. That was the worst performance by the national team in the history of the Sudirman Cup,” Broto told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, referring to the previous edition of the tournament.

At the 2017 cup, Indonesia was ousted in the group stage after finishing at the bottom of its group following a 4-1 loss to India and 3-2 win over Denmark.

In the biennial tournament, the top two of each group advance to the quarterfinals.

Broto said the team would come to Nanning with less “ammunition”, after losing Liliyana and Debby. It means the team will rely on its men’s doubles players to collect wins as its shuttlers in other categories were not yet dependable.

“For example, can Jojo [Jonatan Christie] or [Anthony Sinisuka] Ginting bear the burden of such an important mission?

“In the women’s singles, we know that our players are still catching up to others.

“We still have a chance in the women’s doubles but the squad has yet to reach the top of the podium [this season], while we mostly rely on new pairs in the mixed doubles,” said Broto.

With this composition of players, Broto said it would be realistic to target the semis, especially given the possibility of facing strong Japanese and Chinese teams along the way.

Japan is on a mission to win its first Sudirman Cup, with head coach Park Joo-bong saying the 2019 tournament was a great chance for his team to lift the trophy, as the team’s strength was equally spread across all five categories: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

“Of course, we have the Olympic race starting this year, but the Sudirman Cup is a big target for the team. Over the last year we’ve had good results. The Nippon Badminton Association also believes it’s a new challenge. We have a good chance to win,” said Park, as quoted by bwfbadminton.com.

In the current world rankings, Japan has representatives in the top three of all five categories, including 2018 All England mixed doubles champions Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino. Previously, Japan has not had a representative in the top three of this category.

“Yes, we will try to become the champions, but it’s not going to be easy because China will be on its home turf. The Chinese are very strong in mixed doubles — they have two strong pairs.

Indonesia is also very good, but China are the strongest,” Park added.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) head of development and achievement Susy Susanti remained positive, saying the key strategy was to have a perfect composition of players in the line-up.

“We are optimistic. Our players usually play better at team championships,” she said in a statement.

In the meantime, Indonesia is competing at the Tong Yun Kai Cup Asian mixed team championship in Hong Kong this week. Indonesia won its first match 5-0 against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

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