Badminton has been a medal-winning sport for India since the 2012 Olympics with Saina winning a bronze and Sindhu winning 1 silver and 1 bronze. But have these medals transformed India to go for more medals? The answer seems to be no with the form India possesses in the present.
Men's Singles.
India has 7 men's players in the top 45 of the world rankings. This can be considered as India having a good team with many players in top rankings but the reality seems to be worrying. Not a single men's player has made it past QF in the BWF tour for more than a year.
Kidambi Srikkanth after his 2017 golden form has gone down significantly without much progress. Sai Praneeth became the 1st Indian after 36 years to win a medal at World Championships in 2019. But after that, he has not made it to the finals even once and in Tokyo he couldn't go past the group stage.
Young prospect for future Lakshya Sen has made good strides in the Challengers. He recently had a training stint with Axelsen at the Dubai coaching center where he was invited by the Denmark great Axelsen. Lakshya Sen has been topsy turvy but with age on his side, he shall make his mark in 2022.
Others including Verma's brothers have looked good beating a few tougher opponents but there has been no consistency among all the singles players which has impacted a lot. With 7 among the top 40, India from an outsider's point of view should have won at least a medal in the Olympics but with no consistency, they need to make a mark from the start of 2022 with Asian games too not far ahead.
Women's Singles
Except for Sindhu, no singles player looks like a threat to the opponent. Saina Nehwal has been suffering from injuries with no proper game time. Apart from these two, there has not been a single player who can make an impact in the International arena.
Here are a few names who have good talent and have showcased themselves at the national level like Rituparna Pand, Ashmitha Chaliha, and Tanvi Lad but none of them have performed consistently or have fared ahead. There needs to be an immediate successor for Sindhu who can take singles forward.
The transition of Saina to Sindhu was very efficient with Sindhu doing justice to the talent she possess. In the same way, the future generation needs to step up.
Doubles.
Men's double now looks a threat, to be honest. Many might question me how? But with Satwik/Siraj pair a new young and dynamic pair have arrived Kapila/Arjun who have impressed many with their recent performances for more than a year. Although it may take time for them to succeed if we compare the past where we did not have single recognized doubles pair this seems to be great.
Mixed doubles.
With Satwik /Ashwini and Kapila/Sikki, this section too looks good. As mentioned before we cannot expect results early itself but would require time to settle down and play good high-level tournaments. But at least one of these pairs should make it to Paris 2024.
Infrastructure and talent scouting.
Apart from AP/ Telangana and KA not many states have good badminton infrastructures. Lucknow is now the hub for Para athletes where Gaurav Khana takes care. But when it comes to abled with Gopichand and Vimal Kumar there has not been enough exposure or talents from other states which need to have a look at.
Hatsun academy in Tamil Nadu is one such academy where students are taken care of everything from studies to coaching and with good badminton facilities. Like these, there need to be many academies where students can get good infrastructure and scout.
With the likes of PBL, too not possible for the lower-ranked players who only play the national level tournaments which happen once. So each state can have its leagues like TNBSL in TN. Sankar Muthusamy was scouted from this league and he became the youngest at 15 to play for PBL franchise Chennai. This exposure would be highly beneficial in the future.
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