The 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast was a breakthrough year for India in badminton. It was in this edition that India won seven medals – two gold, three silver and two bronze – and became the most successful nation in badminton competition at the Games.
Badminton, which debuted at the CWG in 1966 in Kingston, Jamaica, saw India achieve sporadic success with Prakash Padukone (1978), Syed Modi (1982) and Parupalli Kashyap (2014) winning the crowns of the men’s singles while Saina Nehwal won gold in women’s singles twice – in 2010 in New Delhi and Gold Coast. Overall, England and Malaysia dominated the event until 2018 when India emerged as the top spot.
READ ALSO : “One of our most distinguished athletes”: PM Narendra Modi hails Neeraj Chopra’s money at Worlds
It was also in 2018 that India won gold in the mixed team competition for the first time at the Commonwealth Games. India dominated the women’s singles as Saina Nehwal won the women’s singles gold medal beating compatriot PV Sindhu in the Gold Coast final.
This time, Sindhu will spearhead India’s campaign at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, hoping to turn his money from four years ago into gold as Saina has been left out as she has skipped the trials.
In those four years, Sindhu grew into a stronger player, climbed the pinnacle of women’s badminton as world champion in 2019 and also did well on the circuit, winning her second medal (a bronze medal) at the Tokyo Olympics. Sindhu is in superb form for the Commonwealth Games, having won the Singapore Open a few days ago. This year, she also won the Swiss Open and the Syed Modi Memorial in New Delhi.
TOTAL COVERAGE: Commonwealth Games 2022
India’s men’s singles campaign will be led by World Championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth and World No. 10 and World Championship bronze medalist Lakshya Sen who has had a superb start to the season.
Lakshya and Srikanth, who won silver behind Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei in 2018, are ranked 10th and 11th in the BWF world rankings and are expected to be ranked third and fourth respectively behind Malaysian world number 5 Lee Zii Jia and Loh Kean Yew from Singapore, ranked 9th. in the world.
Both are going through a lean period after superb results earlier in the year. After winning the Indian Open title in Delhi in January, Lakshya reached the final of the German and All England Open.
Since then, he has been part of the Thomas Cup-winning squad, but only managed to reach the quarter-finals at the Indonesia Masters in June, making early exits at the Korea Open, the Asian Championships and the Indonesia Open in June.
Srikanth has also had a similar trajectory as the former world No. 1 suffered early losses in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and at the Asian Badminton Championships, All England and India Open this season.
He reached the quarter-finals of the German Open and the semi-finals of the Swiss Open and the Korean Open, in addition to playing a crucial role in India’s first triumph at the Thomas Cup in May.
If Srikanth, Lakshya, Sindhu and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty play to their potential, India should retain the mixed team title they won in Gold Coast.
READ ALSO : Neeraj Chopra exalts the nation with the World Javelin Athletics Championships
India are also hoping for a medal from the men’s duo of Rankireddy and Shetty, who are ranked eighth in the world. The 2018 Gold Coast silver medalist, who won the Indian Open in January this year and reached the quarter-finals of the England, Korea and badminton championships this season.
The world No. 8 duo had some superb outings in the Thomas Cup, contributing to India’s sensational victory over Indonesia in the final by beating a solid combination of Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
They were troubled by an injury to Chirag Shetty but appear to have recovered. India’s top men’s doubles pair have made the most of the special overseas coach arranged by the government for them and have improved a lot in recent years.
Along with these tried and tested activists, look out for young singles player Aakarshi Kashyap and rookie women’s doubles combination of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who will make their CWG debuts. In 2018, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy won bronze in women’s doubles. This time around, she will compete in mixed doubles with B Sumeeth Reddy.
All in all, if the players perform to their potential, India should have another productive campaign at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Read all Recent news et recent news ici
