Tomas Cup - How India Made History

The Indian Men’s Badminton Team Won Glory By Clinching The Thomas Cup For The First Time. What Went Into The Big Win And Where Do We Go From Here?

- Suhani Singh with Amarnath K. Menon and Ajay Sukumaran

ON SUNDAY, MAY 15, A cricket-obsessed nation found itself in awe of its shuttlers. Lakshya Sen was sprawled on the court, relieved, having come from a game down to defeat 2020 Olympics bronze medallist Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. Chirag Shetty took off his shirt to celebrate his and partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s victory, which saw them save four match points against doubles luminaries Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo. The otherwise calm Kidambi Srikanth screamed and dropped his racquet after defeating Jonathan Christie. Trouncing 14-time champions Indonesia, India won the Thomas Cup, the world men’s team championship in badminton. Think of it as similar to the Indian cricket team defeating Australia in the World Cup finals. Or, as the chief coach of the national badminton team, Pullela Gopichand, puts it—like the Kapil Dev-led team beating the mighty West Indies in the 1983 World Cup finals.

“This is an inflection point for Indian badminton,” says Gopichand. “The last few years have been very successful, but largely at the individual level. We have depth in the singles and a strong doubles pair capable of beating the best in the world. Moreover, the entire unit worked as a team. This is what has made ours a formidable team that can take on the best of other leading badminton-playing nations.”