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A confident Indian badminton contingent will aim for their maiden gold medal in the mixed team event as the Commonwealth Games 2018 get under way at Gold Coast, Australia on Thursday. All five of India’s gold medals in the shuttle sport have so far come from the individual competition -- Prakash Padukone in 1978, Syed Modi in 1982, Saina Nehwal and Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa in 2010, and Parupalli Kashyap in 2014.
Missing among these glittering accomplishments is the gold from the team event. India’s best performance in this category came in Delhi eight years ago, when they had to settle for the silver medal.
The main reason for this could be attributed to India’s over dependence on its singles stars in the earlier editions. Doubles had been meted out a stepbrotherly attitude for years, that stunted its growth. And that, in turn, did India no good in high-profile team events such as the ones at the Commonwealth Games, where five matches are played and overall contribution is required.
Major improvements in doubles
Four years after missing out on a bronze at Glasgow, it is a different picture now. Not only has India’s singles become far sharper, the injection of young talent in the doubles brigade has worked wonders.
With the arrival of specialist doubles coach, Tan Kim Her in 2015 end, things have steadily looked up in the doubles section. A system has been put in place to harness the talent into producing results on the court.
Now the team is a far more potent force, where all the members can do their bit, something even doubles star Sikki Reddy reiterated in a recent interaction with Sportskeeda. She expressed optimism that India can win the prized yellow metal this time.
India’s top seeding in the mixed team event validates the country’s recent progress. Three-time gold medallists Malaysia is seeded right after them, followed by six-time champions England.
India's biggest challenges
Needless to say, India’s toughest competition should come from these two teams. Former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei leads the charge for Malaysia and they also have Rio Olympic silver medallists Tan Wee Kiong and Goh V Shem among their ranks.
England, too, can bank on their star mixed doubles pair of Chris and Gabrielle Adcock and their Rio Olympic bronze medal-winning men’s doubles duo of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge. They also have the services of former Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph, who possesses the skills to pull off an upset or two.
India need to be wary of these two challenges, in particular, if they want to grab the gold for the first time. This time they will hope that their fast-rising men’s doubles combine of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty brings forth their fearlessness and gets a point for the country. Ashwini Ponnappa, a former gold medallist herself, will partner Sikki Reddy and will look to snatch a point.
Reddy will also try her best to carry the form that took her and Pranaav Jerry Chopra to the India Open mixed doubles semi-finals in February and get a favourable result for her country. In singles, India have sent their four best shuttlers -- PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Nehwal.
Sindhu and Prannoy were the best Indian performers in women’s and men’s singles respectively at the All England Open last month. Srikanth did suffer an early exit due to lack of match play of late, but he will surely try to push it behind and draw confidence from his scintillating run in 2017.
Nehwal already has the experience of tasting Commonwealth Games glory and knows it best how to raise her level under pressure.
The 16 teams in the mixed team event have been divided into four groups, with India heading Group A. The two best finishers from each group will advance to the quarter-finals to be played on Saturday.
India will begin its campaign against Sri Lanka on Thursday morning and their second match will be in the evening against Pakistan. India’s final group encounter will be against Scotland on Friday.
While Sindhu has been rested in India’s first tie, both Nehwal and Srikanth will be in action.
