Kidambi Srikanth's recent success augurs well for Indian dominance in World Badminton

Apart from legendary Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, who won the All-England Championships in 1980 and 2001 respectively, Indian male badminton stars didn’t have much to boast about. Furthermore, the lack of consistency of the promising youngsters derailed India’s progress and that subsequently diminished to a point of no hope. Meanwhile, a young girl from the historical town of Hyderabad made her way into Indian consciousness with her fantastic backhand smashes and beautiful court coverage. Saina Nehwal announced her arrival on the big stage with a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, only at the age of 20, and two years later, she won the Bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. What made that bronze more special was the fact that there was no precedent in front of her. No Indian shuttler had done what she did at London- India achieved the first Olympic medal in badminton. In a way, Saina had just set the footprints for many an Indian to follow. After Sania, another Hyderabad lass PV Sindhu produced a series of stunning performances en-route to the final of the Rio Olympics, where she lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin but not before giving her a tough run for money in a grueling three-setter. The shining silver, when entire India rooted for one medal, made her the new famous star on the block- for the corporates and fans alike. 

But, amidst their heights, Indian male badminton stars had already become afterthoughts due to their lack of exploits on the court. But since the Rio Olympics, it has changed big-time and how!

One of the main reasons behind such a transformation can be attributed to the success of Saina and Sindhu on the world stage. Their popularities among the yout started to influence their men counterparts. Now, they know that, in the day and age of social media, they can also achieve the same limelight if they perform consistently at the world stage. That reflected in their game as well and the strong desire to win the big matches rather than just being satisfied with rankings and team selections, which has worked in their favour.

Ever since Sindhu won the India Open Super Series title in early April, Srikanth reached three straight Super Series finals- at Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia respectively and won the last two. At Singapore, though, he lost to his compatriot and long-time confidante B Sai Praneeth. Despite having not won a title, HS Prannoy also showed tremendous ability and big-match temperament to beat two former World No 1’s, and Olympic gold and silver medallists, Chen Long and Lee Chong Wei respectively in back-to-back matches at the Indonesia Open. Although he lost the qualifier at Australian Open against Kazumasa Sakai, he gave him a tough run for his money. This tells us the story of how brilliant the Indians have been in last one year or so and for that to happen, many factors have come together to ensure the phenomenon.

“We had Indonesian coach Mulyo along with Hariawan. Also, the likes of Siddharth Jain and Amrish Shinde have been spending more time at the camps and that has ensured that all the top players are getting more attention,” Gopichand told PTI some days ago.

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