Shuttling with promise and hope
When 2021 began, India’s badminton stars, apart from P V Sindhu, were desperate for matches. Many players ultimately failed in their bid to qualify for the Olympics and questions, some of them disparaging, were being asked. “Is this the end of the road?” was the gist of many of those queries. “Who after Sindhu?” was another that was doing the rounds then. The last three to four months have suggested that those questions were perhaps premature.
At the World Championships in Huelva, Spain, the men returned with two medals in the singles, a historic achievement. Both Kidambi Srikanth, a former World No. 1 who has been struggling for form, fitness and consistency since 2018, and Lakshya Sen, labelled as the next big thing since he became junior World No. 1 in 2017, gave a timely reminder of the talent pool that exists in the country. While the obvious caveat is that the men’s field in Spain was depleted, their medals could yet lay the platform for a massive 2022, starting with the All England Championships in March.
Why? It’s given Srikanth the necessary belief that at 28, he can still mix it up with the big boys. The most heartening part has been the rise of Lakshya. He is just 20 and has shown he can step up to the next level in his career. One can also make a case that the kid, a product of the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, is more than suited to lead India’s charge in Paris and beyond. He’s got the game, his world ranking (currently No. 19) is set for an upward trajectory and he has the necessary support system (Olympic Gold Quest as well as the appointment of a new Korean coach at the PPBA) to thrive.
For Srikanth, who was asked if ‘he was back’ during the tournament, this is a welcome return to normalcy after a couple of fallow years. Badminton has been a sport that has seen India win an unparalleled multiple World and Olympic medals in the last decade, and the next 10 years could yet bring more gongs if these two can use the World Championship performance as a springboard. And chances are they might.