Going backwards: Why is former World No 3 Kidambi Srikanth stuck in reverse gear?

March 28, 2014: “Srikanth was very good. In recent times, he is undoubtedly the most complete player I have seen. He will go a long way if he continues to play this way,” said badminton legend Lin Dan after Kidambi Srikanth beat him in the China Open.

March 9, 2017: Srikanth loses to Chinese qualifier Zhao Junpeng in the first round of the All England Championship.

It is now apparent that Srikanth hasn’t continued to play in the same way. Rather, he seems to be stuck, unable to move forward... unable to evolve.

On Wednesday, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu progressed to round two of the All England Championship. Their wins in the early rounds don’t surprise us anymore. In fact, it is a given. But with Srikanth, lately, you never quite know. With the added experience of playing on the tour for a while, the young shuttler should have been getting better but instead, his inconsistency is pulling him down just when he should have been primed to burst into the higher ranks with the sort of permanency that Saina and Sindhu have exhibited.

Rewind to the Olympics in 2016, Srikanth pushed Lin Dan all the way in the quarter-finals — the final game alone stretched to over 30 minutes before the Chinese player won through 21-6, 11-21, 21-18. The fight shown by Srikanth — after he was schooled in the first game — convinced many of his potential. But now, it seems like that loss hit him much harder than anyone realised.

To illustrate the point: just look at the difference between Sindhu, who won the silver medal at the Olympics, and Srikanth since that tournament. While the former seems to be brimming with belief, Srikanth seems to be quietly battling his inner demons.

Stuck in Rio?

After Rio, Srikanth competed in Japan Open where he lost in the quarter-finals to Germany’s Marc Zwiebler. However, he injured himself in Japan and at the Korea Super Series in September, he aggravated the stress fracture during his round-of-32 clash against Wong Wing Ki Vincent, which he lost 10-21, 24-22, 17-21.

As a result, the 24-year-old missed the rest of the season due to which he dropped in rankings as well. He was out of action for more than three months and returned to the court only during the Syed Modi International Championship where he was the defending champion. He made a splendid run at the tournament before losing in the semi-finals to compatriot Sai Praneeth B 21-15, 10-21, 17-21.

Buoyed by the performance, Srikanth approached the German Open with renewed confidence and in his first international match in five months, he beat Slovenia’s Alen Roj 21-4, 21-11. He beat Japan’s Yusuke Onodera as well but then fell to World No 5 Chen Long of China 19-21, 20-22 in the round-of-16 tie.

However, as his latest loss in London shows, Srikanth’s has still not rediscovered his best rhythm on court. When in form, Srikanth torments opponents with his agility and speed, but right now he seems to be searching for answers, rather than winners on court.

In June 2015, he was the World No 3 and in the latest rankings published last week, he fell to the No 29 spot. A bad ranking means the chance of running into higher-ranked opponents increases and unless he starts winning titles, the ranking isn’t going to get better either. It is a strange quandary he finds himself in. He looks to be fit and injury-free now and it’s time to get the confidence up as well.

At 22, he was in among the top three in the world and some say that things might have seemed like they were a bit too easy at that point. But the consistency of the greats has eluded him. Nehwal and Sindhu took longer to break into the top-10 but once they did, they showed that they were there to stay. They usually go deep in the draw and that is a true sign of how far they’ve come.

However, for Srikanth the fall from the top has been swift and it might have planted a few doubts in his mind. Opponents don’t see him as a consistent threat yet and that should worry national coach Pullela Gopichand too.

Srikanth has the pedigree to beat the best but sometimes you get stuck in a rut. This is exactly where Gopichand would need to step in and help his ward along. Sometimes, all you need is a little push.