Kidambi Srikanth's roller-coaster ride in world badminton

Sports and life are great levellers and Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth is someone who has recently experienced that. The Guntur boy was at the zenith of his career during the Commonwealth Games in April as he was ranked world number one after some breathtaking performances in 2017  in the lead up to him being ranked number 1. From being an unknown name to a serious threat, Kidambi used to punch above his weight but has now gone on to being the 'slayed one' from the 'giant slayer' that he was. His rankings continue rolling down in a dubious free flow and currently after the loss in the quarters of China Open, he finds himself at 8th spot in the BWF world rankings and a hapless 31 in the tour rankings.

Though he couldn't carry his form into the World Championship and bowed out in the quarter-finals, he went on to create history by being the Indian shuttler to win the Denmark and French Open titles. His back-to-back titles saw the Andhra boy getting the better of some of the world's best like Viktor Axelsen, Shi Yuqi etc. Srikanth was unable to participate in the China Open as he suffered a leg injury just before the Super Series in November and had to remain satisfied with world number two at the end of 2017 after he lost all his games in the season-ending World SuperSeries finals in Dubai to Viktor Axelsen, Chou Tien Chen and Shi Yuqi.

The beginning for Srikanth this year has been nothing to write home as he lost in the round of 16 of the India Open to unfancied Iskandar Zulqarnain of Malaysia while Huang Yuxiang got the better of him in the round of 16 at the All England Badminton Championships.

Post that, Srikanth became world number one during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in which the Indian mixed team event bagged a gold and Srikanth finished second in his individual men's singles event. He replaced Axelsen at the top of the rankings in the same month of April with a total of 76895 BWF points. The lad from Andhra Pradesh won against some of the tougher opponents including Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the Mixed Team event and England's Rajiv Ouseph in the semi-finals of men's singles. However, Chong Wei made amends as he won the finals of the singles event against Srikanth.

Both Axelsen and Momota are in top form this year so far, and a few others in top 10 of the rankings have exhibited great skills throughout the year while Srikanth has lagged behind because of his continuous drop in his form and lack of quality performance in of the super series competitions.  On the other hand, it is believed that the technique of switching Srikanth from his natural aggressive play to the defensive mode hasn't quite helped him this year. Earlier, national coach Pullela Gopichand had made adjustments in his style of play last year and explained about the difference from 2016.

"When you are physically fitter, you do not mind being patient on court. You are more confident about playing longer rallies instead of rushing in with an out-and-out aggressive game. That is the difference you now see in Srikanth's game vis-a-vis 2016,” Gopichand had said a year before.

“It’s been a very packed calendar this year with the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games added to it, so it’s not been easy on the body. We have been working hard in training and should start getting results soon,” Srikanth had said before going into the Japan Open.

There are instances in Indian badminton where a player gets injured sits out and then comes back to put up a great show. Saina Nehwal did that in 2016 after suffering from an intra-articular injury (inside the joint) to her right knee. She recovered well and now is still playing with the same intensity in big tournaments. She finished with a bronze in the Asian Games after humbling PV Sindhu in the finals of the Commonwealth Games. Even male shuttler HS Prannoy has had an injury-ridden career so far, and despite that he has been India's second best male shuttler as per current rankings.

“You cannot do the same things over the years, even if you are performing well. Probably last year we had a different kind of strategy with Mulyo – it was probably working out. But now we’ve had a couple of changes in the training schedule," Prannoy had informed a couple of weeks before.

Now, with not much time remaining in 2018, Srikanth will certainly be looking forward to get some success towards the fag end of the calendar year. He will look forward to end the year on a high despite form and fitness being major issues. But, considering the packed schedule this year and the kind of form he is in, is it a far cry? You never know.