Badminton World Championships: Can Srikanth and Co break Indian men’s 34-year medal drought?

Glasgow: In the last official practice session before the start of the 23rd edition of the World Badminton Championship in Glasgow, the four Indian men’s singles players were busy playing a three-point game on the main court. The camaraderie was obvious as they pushed and shoved each other to leave the court though the unwritten rule of such games is that the winner continues to play.

But even during those short games in the hour long session, there were enough coaches from other countries keeping a keen eye on the exchanges while the players themselves were not willing to give an inch to the person across the net.

Since Prakash Padukone’s bronze medal winning run in 1983, India’s men’s singles players were rarely more than mere journeymen at bigger tournaments like the World Championship. The only exception was Pullela Gopichand’s campaign in the 2001 World Championship in Spain where he entered as the All England champion.

India ended the 28-year medal drought at the World Badminton Championship back in 2011, when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnnappa surprised everyone to bag the women’s doubles bronze in London. Since then India has won a medal in every edition of the championship and not surprisingly the success has come in the women’s category.

Only P Kashyap came within a point of a medal when he missed a match-point against China’s Du Pengyu before losing in three games in the quarterfinals of the 2013 edition in Guangzhou but even then not many would have named the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist as a medal contender in pre-tournament reviews.

Buzz around the Indian quartet

But there is a different kind of buzz around the Indian quartet at the World Championship and though all of them are very cautious when speaking about their prospects in the tournament, even they know that this is their best chance of getting their name in the history books.

While world number eight Kidambi Srikanth is expectedly leading the charge, the likes of B Sai Praneeth, Ajay Jayaram and even Sameer Verma have proved in the past that they can beat any opponent on their day.

Srikanth and Sai Praneeth have shared the last three Superseries titles while Verma and Ajay have managed to reach one Superseries final each and have been fortunate enough to get a decent draw to get into some sort of rhythm in the competition.

Even Viktor Axelsen, Europe’s best bet to win a title here, included Srikanth in the list of potential winners along with Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan and Chen Long in a recent media interaction.

Srikanth, who has lost just two out of his last 17 matches, definitely has the best possible draw he could have hoped for in the championship. He opens his campaign against Russia’s Sergey Sirant. Though Sirant would be on a high after winning the Russian Grand Prix title last month, if the Indian manages to hit the ground running then his first real challenge should come only in the quarter-finals where he is expected to meet top seed Son Wan Ho of Korea.

The Indian has beaten the Korean twice in their last two meetings en-route to winning the title and a similar outcome cannot be ruled out if Srikanth does manage to reach the semi-finals.

But the player himself doesn’t want to rush ahead of himself and during a recent media interaction before leaving for the World Championship insisted on starting well after a long preparation period.

“I got a big break after the three events. After such a break the first rounds are also very tough, so I was taking it match by match and I didn’t set any targets,” he said.

Among the four Indians, Singapore Superseries champion Sai Praneeth probably has the toughest route to the medal given that he faces the experienced Wei Nan of Hong Kong in the first round and the highly talented Anthony Gingting of Indonesia as a potential second round opponent.

But ever since the arrival of Mulyo Handoyo, Sai Praneeth has started relishing the challenge of tough rounds early on in the competition as they allow him to get into a sort of rhythm before the business end of the tournament.

Even in Singapore, the 25-year-old played long matches from the first round itself and if does manage to find that form in his first-ever world championship appearance then he would be the man to beat.

Compared to the two, Ajay and Verma haven’t been in top form lately due to a few injury concerns but the duo have prepared well for the competition and the big stage should inspire them to raise the bar when it matters the most.

Verma would open his campaign on Monday against Spain’s Pablo Abian while Ajay would take the court on Tuesday against Luka Wraber in what is termed to be most open world championship in men’s singles over the years.

Seventh seed Lin Dan of China has won five of the last eight editions of the championship while his compatriot Chen Long won the last two. But both of them along with the experienced Lee Chong Wei, a three time finalist, haven’t been in top form this year with Long failing to win a single Supereseries title this year.

In the pre-tournament media interaction but Dan and Chong Wei admitted that they were no more the runway favourites to face-off against each other in the final and there are many other shuttlers whom they would have to negotiate if they want to continue their world dominance.

But then the big stars are known to raise their game during such major events and whether or not Indian shuttlers can find a place on that podium next Sunday would depend on how well the Indian quartet that convert their potential into performance when it matters the most in the same arena where India won a gold and bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

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