There is no hiding the fact that the Indian badminton team has been emerging as a superpower. The country has a number of players who have entered the top 100 ranking. Girls are not too far behind in the race either.
Gone are the days when India depended on one or two players in a major tournament. Now they possess a team of individuals where even the new names cause a stir among the most popular names on the list.
The Asian Games which just ended in the month of September, our badminton team has performed so well. It is a Pan-Asian tournament which starts from the 18th of August to the 2nd of September. It was held in the cities of Jakarta and Palembang.
Their team consists of 524 members across 36 disciplines. Out of which 20 belongs to the badminton team. The Federation for the first time organised two senior-ranking tournaments to select players that represented the nation. Here are some facts related to badminton in the games:
Past experiences:
India doesn’t possess a rich history when it comes to this event. India won the first medal in the last edition in 2014 after a drought of 32 years. That being a bronze one in the team event. While Syed Modi was the one who won a bronze one in the 1982 edition.
Medal prospects in this year’s edition:
The team this year was headed by P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth. The two being with the world number 3 and 7 in their respective categories. Not to forget the charismatic presence of Saina Nehwal who is on 10th rank, but has surprised even the best in the business.
List of players:
The team was a fine mixture of youth and experience. Apart from the names that are already mentioned. The men’s doubles pair consists of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. The women’s doubles pair consists of Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa.
India clinched many medals in this Asian Games. It is quite simply the most complete squad in the past two-three decades. They faced some stiff competition from Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and most importantly China. With mentors like Gopichand, Vimal Kumar and SM Arif, the future looks bright.
