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Chirag Shetty makes special request to Air India after historic Thomas Cup triumph
Laskhya Sen, the doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective matches as India wrapped the five-round match early, winning it 3-0.
The Indian men's badminton team scripted history on Sunday as they defeated a 14-time champions Indonesia to clinch the Thomas and Uber Cup title. This was India's maiden win at the tournament.
Laskhya Sen, the doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective matches as India wrapped the five-round match early, winning it 3-0.
Soon after the win, wishes started flooding on social media hailing the shuttlers for unlocking a major achievement. Air India too joined the bandwagon and extended their wishes on Twitter. Sharing a photo of the Indian team, the airline company wrote: "This victory will give wings to the dreams of all young sportspersons of our country."
Chirag, one half of the doubles team, was quick to react and jokingly he made a special request to the airline company. Here is his response:
Former Danish badminton player and currently the team’s doubles coach Mathias Boe also reacted to the tweet by Air India.
Chirag celebrated their win over Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (18-21 23-21 21-19) by taking off his jersey, before putting it back while the players left the court.
Many fans on Twitter connected the moment with former India captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly's famour shirtless celebration at Lord's after the Natwest series win.
The five-round match saw an early finish with world championship bronze medallist Lakshya kicking off the show with a 8-21 21-17 21-16 win over world number five Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
The pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then produced another fine display of determination and defeated Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
In the second singles, which eventually turned out to be the final contest, Kidambi Srikanth outclassed Asian games gold medallist Jonatan Christie 21-15 23-21 in less than an hour to hand India an unassailable 3-0 advantage.
