Former India coach Vimal Kumar: I'm disappointed with Srikanth and Prannoy

Srikanth lost in straight games to ageing Malaysian Daren Liew, while Prannoy went down to unheralded Igor Coelho of Brazil in the pre-quarterfinals at the recent World Championships

Former India coach Vimal Kumar feels that Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy need to have an alternative plan when put under pressure if they want to win medals at the upcoming Asian Games in Indonesia. Srikanth lost in straight games to ageing Malaysian Daren Liew, while Prannoy went down to unheralded Igor Coelho of Brazil in the pre-quarterfinals at the recent World Championships.

"I'm disappointed with Srikanth and Prannoy. They need to find the consistency. You need to play differently when something doesn't work. They are unable to do that. Both are attacking players but when things go differently, they are unable to cope. They must make that adjustment," Kumar said. What has disappointed Kumar is the fact that Srikanth couldn't capitalise on Lee Chong Wei's absence in the World Championship.

Vimal Kumar

"Srikanth should have capitalised as Chong Wei pulling out opened the bottom half of the draw. Liew didn't have any big result. Sometimes, you can take a game from a top player but he is not of the same level as Prannoy or Srikanth. So it was not a good result for Srikanth," he added. "But anything can happen at the Asian Games because the top players play with such indifferent form, no one is playing anything special except [Kento] Momota."

Kumar, 55, who guided Saina Nehwal to World No. 1, said the standard of men's singles was very poor at the World Championship. "If you look at the standard in men's singles, there was no one special apart from Momota. After Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan, this man is taking badminton to another level. He was literally toying with everybody. He plays both attacking and defensive and has good deceptive strokes," said Kumar.

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