An incredible week culminated in a fitting manner as the Indian men’s badminton team stunned defending champions Indonesia in the Thomas Cup 2022 final at the Impact Arena in Bangkok on Sunday. (More Badminton News)
Not just winning a historic title after more than seven decades, the Thomas Cup triumph sent out a bigger message for India's🎉 top players and administrators - a team first mindset.
Every pꦯlayer and coach who spoke after Sunday's massive win emphasised the fact ♓how the men came together as a team.
"The belief and motivation only grew stronger after India's quarterfinal win against former champions Malaysia," veteran player Kidambi Srikanth told Prime Minis🔴ter Narendra Modi during an interaction.
HS Prannoy was a classic case of what team-first feelings can do. Egged on my ecstatic teammates from the sidelines who celebrated every point he scored, Prannoy rose above paꦅin to win a crucial match against Denmark in the semifinal on Friday.
The emot💃ions of playing as a team cannot be described easily. On Sunday, the men, most of whom crisscross the world playing individual tournaments, felt it from their heart.
Speaking to BWF after the win, Srikanth said the team environment was very good and everyone was 🎶really supportive of each other. On a personal level, Srikanth said he is very happy with the win as India had never won the Thomas Cup before.
“This might sound a little dramatic. But you know, whe💞n I was in Korea for the Korea Masters, and the following week we had selection trials… immediately after those trials, when the team got announced, we created a (Whatsapp) group titled ‘We’ll Bring It Home’, or something like that.
“This happened a week before the tournament started. So yeah… we always thought we are capable, but w𝓰e only had to be consistent. Coming h𒈔ere, it was a fantastic team and we had great atmosphere.
“We were a happy team, 𒈔and we were really supp♛orting each other and backing each other,” Srikanth said.
Players from China, Japan and Korea train in a team set-up. In international tournaments, they look like a force. I♛ndians don't because each one them have personal agendas and targets to meet.
In Thomas Cup this ti👍me, the men's team decided to prove a point. They wanted to win as a team.
After finishing runners-up in Group C, the young Indian team dished a spect🌞acular show to douse off mighty Mℱalaysia in the quarterfinals.
Appearing for the semifinals for the first time since 1979, Kidambi Srikanth and Co. avenged thei🌸r 43-year-old defeat against Denmark 3-2 in a thrilling encounter to enter their maiden final.
On Sunday, the Indians, not only scripted history but also showed they are here to rule the next few years with an eye on the podium at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and 2024 Paris Olympics.
If Lakshya Sen’s steely nerves and skills were on display during his come-from-behind win against Anthony Ginting, the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty similar mental courage when they saved four match points in the second game to outwit fanci🌠ed Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
Kidambi Srikanth was at his absolute best in outclassing Asia෴n Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie to seal the historic victory. It is easy to win individual tournaဣments, but this win as a complete team showed the depth India have in the sport.
Why India’s win over Indonesia is a massive achievement?
The Indonesians came into the final w𓃲ith an all-win record and consisted of some of the top-ranked players in 🦹the world on their side.
From fourth-ranked🐓 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting to world No.8 Jonatan Christie to three players of the world's top two pairs – Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, Mohammad Ah𝓡san and Hendra Setiawan, Indonesia were loaded with match-winners.
On the contrary, India 🅘only had Lakshya Sen (9th) in the top 10 of men’s singles world rankings. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are ranked eighth in the world.
The likes of Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, doubles pairs of MR Arjun and Dhruv 𝓰Kapila, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala don’t even feature in the top 20 in the worl𝐆d.
Indian coac💃h Vimal𓆉 Kumar doesn’t want to dwell much into the future now but said they can only take positives from here on.
“We can only take positives from this victꦦo✨ry. This is a young bunch and I am hopeful they can do a lot better in the upcoming future tournaments,” Vimal Kumar said.
Looking Back
Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) took Indian badminton to great heights by winning the All England Open Badminton championships. Success were ไfew and far between.
Saina Nehwal's 2012 London Olympics bronze, PV Sindhu’s Olympics medals (Rio 2016 silverꦆ and Tokyo 2020 bronze) and ✤her World Championship medals in 2013, 2014 (bronze), 2017, 2018 (silver) and 2019 (gold) took badminton’s popularity to its peak.
But these were large🍎ly individual efforts and with different support staff. The women have never played successfully as a team.
All that can change now.
Kidambi Srikanth has led India from the front and Prannoy proved that he was still a force to be reckoned with. Bu🐼t both will agree that more than half their mental and physical strength came from their teammates on the sidelines.
That's what team feeli🐽ng can do - move the mountains and doing incredible things like winning the Thomas Cup against a far superiꦇor opponent.
