With Malaysia having a youthful and inexperienced side, all eyes will be on Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah to lead the charge in the Asian Team Championships in Shah Alam from Feb 15-20.
Doubles Pearly-Thinaah had enjoyed a breakout season last year as they won the Swiss Open and reached the quarter-finals of the Yonex Thailand Open, Toyota Thailand Open and Indonesian Masters.
Now ranked a career high No 15 in the world, the young pair are without doubt Malaysia's go-to for the points in the Asian meet.
Especially since Malaysia need to finish in the top four to secure a spot in the Uber Cup finals in Thailand later this year.
Pearly-Thinaah are all fired up for the challenge as the Malaysian team hope to emulate their semi-final finish in 2020.
"I think we have improved a fair bit as a pair but there is still a lot to work to be done. We are taking it day by day," said Thinaah.
"I am aware that we are the highest ranked Malaysians in the team and there will always be pressure on us.
"The pressure however will not be a problem as it is down to how we handle it. And it's definitely good to start our season with the team event and we're very much looking forward to the action.
"I believe our team stand a chance to do well and we're ready to do our best to help the team," added Thinaah.
Besides Pearly-Thinaah, the other women's doubles in the Malaysian team are Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing, Valeree Siow-Low Yeen Yuan and Go Pei Kee. The women's singles comprise S. Kisona, Eoon Qi Xuan, Siti Nurshuhaini Azman, Myisha Khairul and Tan Zhing Yi.
Malaysia are drawn in Group Y with top seeds Japan and India with only the top two teams progressing to the semi-finals.
Fortunately for Malaysia, Japan, second seeds South Korea and Indonesia have opted to field their second stringers for the competition with several top names sitting out the competition.
Among the top women's shuttlers missing out are Japan's world No 2 Akane Yamaguchi and India's world No 7 P.V. Sindhu while Indonesia's Olympic gold medallists Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu are also rested.