Srikanth’s failure upset India’s plans in CWG team final

The 2018 Gold Coast mixed team badminton champions lost 1-3 to Malaysia in the final after the ex-world No 1 lost to a lower-ranked rival, exposing India’s weak women’s doubles pair

Looks like the air of success that blew in Bangkok in May never reached Birmingham. Wearing the Thomas Cup crown, Indian shuttlers reached the Commonwealth Games as the defending mixed team champions. Though they were seeded No 2, form, presence of a world-class doubles pair and recent success on the tour had built anticipation that India will defend the title at the National Exhibition Centre in Solihull.

Kidambi Srikanth in action for India at the Commonwealth Games 2022. (AFP)

A lack of top-level competition meant India breezed past all opposition to set a rematch for gold against top seeds Malaysia.

Though ranked No 7 in the world, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty—they turned out to be the decisive factor in India’s Thomas Cup triumph—were always going to find it tough against Soh Wooi Yik and Aaron Chia with the Tokyo Olympics doubles medallists having won all four meetings between them. Despite a strong fight, the Indian pair lost in straight games as Malaysia drew first blood.

Former world champion PV Sindhu was expected to romp past her women’s singles opponent Goh Jin Wei, ranked 53 spots below her at No 60. But the double Olympic medallist struggled against the Malaysian who had not even come close to winning a game let alone beat the Hyderabad player in their previous two encounters. Here, the Malaysian even saved a game point before Sindhu's experience helped close out the contest to make it 1-1.

The primary factor in India’s mixed team victory in 2018 Gold Coast was Kidambi Srikanth. Then, a confident world No 1 who was winning Superseries tournaments regularly had defeated Lee Chong Wei in men’s singles which crushed the confidence of the Malaysian team, which went on to lose the tie 1-3. From beating one of the greatest ever, world No 13 Srikanth this time lost to Ng Tze Yong, who is yet to make a mark on the tour and is ranked outside the top-40 in the world.

Backed by vociferous Malaysian supporters, Yong caused the biggest upset of the tournament. The tables had turned on India, whose strength lay in singles. All of a sudden, Malaysia became the favourites with a 2-1 lead.

In hindsight, one can argue that young Lakshya Sen could have played the contest. The team management probably backed Srikanth’s experience to as he had beaten Yong twice this year—including, crucially, at the Thomas Cup.

Probably the weakest link in the team, the inexperienced women’s pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand had huge responsibility on their young shoulders to rescue India against the world No 11 pair of Thinaah Muralitharan and Pearly Tan. Treesa and Gayatri had lost India’s only match before the final—in the group phase against Australia—and had also lost their only outing against the Malaysians at the Malaysia Masters last month. The world No 38 combine fought well but their skills were inadequate to stop Malaysia from winning the mixed team gold for the fourth time.