CWG 2022: Did the Indian badminton contingent miss a trick?

Indian shuttlers after winning the silver medal in the mixed team final against Malaysia at Birmingham on Tuesday. Pic/AP, PTI

A loss in the badminton mixed team final is bound to be excessively analysed. The sport, after all, has brought India a lot of medals, in various multi-discipline Games, ranging from Olympics to Asian and Commonwealth Games and more recently, the fantastic win at the Thomas Cup. Little wonder then everybody has their say in what went wrong with the Indian team in the mixed team final.

India lost 1-3 in the final as Malaysia, playing with a completely new team, regained the title they lost to India in 2018. Malaysia had previously won in 2006, 2010 and 2014 for a hat-trick. So, the latest win makes it four times in the last five Commonwealth Games. As for Tuesday's final, the big question has been whether Lakshya Sen should have played instead of Kidambi Srikanth.

Srikanth sobs

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who with Chirag Shetty, had lost the opening match of the tie in the men's doubles, said it was painful to see Srikanth blaming himself for the loss of gold. He said he had never seen Srikanth cry. "Srikanth anna was so distraught. But it's not just his mistake though he's blaming himself. Even I lost a match," added Satwik, who with Shetty had lost to Aaron Chia and Wooi Soh 21-18, 21-15.

K Srikanth returns to Malaysia's NG Tze Yong during his singles tie in the mixed team final. Pic/AFP

Srikanth lost 21-19, 6-21, 16-21 to Tze Yong, ranked 43rd to the Indian's 13th rank in world rankings. Tze Yong was modest: "By myself, I would not have won that. My teammates and fans were amazing." Lakshya's name crops up because only a day earlier he had beaten the world champion, Loh Kean Yew. Earlier this year, Lakshya had also made the All-England final.

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It was always going to be a toss-up between the two. Srikanth has experience, while Lakshya seemed to be in great form. In the past, Srikanth has delivered the goods. He has the pedigree and has rarely lost in the team event. Sure, Lakshya was in form, but he too could have crumbled under pressure and the way NG Tze Yong played his heart out. In sport, no result can be predicted. A lot of things can happen in an important match, more so at crucial stages.

Sindhu struggles

Even World No.7 PV Sindhu had a tough first game against World No.60 Jin Wei Goh. Sindhu lost seven points in a row from 18-12 and very nearly lost the first game. "I should have controlled my errors in the first game because I was very comfortable and I was leading, but I continuously gave her points. I was a bit nervous, but I still had hope that it wasn't over and it's good that I got that first set and that gave me confidence for the second set," said Sindhu.

On the overall match result, she added: "Of course, I'm a bit sad that we missed the gold, but the Malaysians played well. Definitely, we'll take this confidence going forward and I hope that I do well in my individuals [events]."

Meanwhile, Chirag Shetty commented on his and Satwik's loss. "We missed quite a few points in the first half and they got two or three points where we would have finished [the game] otherwise. It's always been very close with them. It is difficult to play against them," Shetty said.

Tough for Satwik, Chirag

Setting aside the ‘Srikanth or Lakshya' debate, let's assume Srikanth had also won his match, the fact remains India still needed a point from one of the three doubles. The best chance was from Satwik and Shetty, ranked seventh in the world, but they were up against Olympic bronze medallists, Aaron Chia and Soh Woo Yik, who were also ranked one spot higher in world rankings.

The other possible doubles point was Satwik and Ashwini Ponappa, who had got that crucial point in 2018. But in 2018, the mixed doubles was played earlier. This time Satwik and Ashwini did not even get a chance as the match was over 3-1 in favour of Malaysia. Let's face it, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are excellent prospects for the future, but right now they are raw and inexperienced and played their first Commonwealth Games.