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That Indian badminton has been a rising force wasn’t unknown. It has no longer been dependent only on Saina Nehwal to deliver. PV Sindhu has been a model of consistency ever since she got to lay her hands on the historic silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
With the rapid improvement in the men’s singles and the doubles departments, Team India has been heavily bolstered. Thus hopes of a mixed team medal at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast were very high.
But, the final did not look easy, by any means. India were facing the formidable Malaysian team, who had the mighty Lee Chong Wei in men’s singles, apart from Rio Olympic silver medallists in both the men’s doubles and the mixed doubles disciplines.
India were very much the underdogs, with not a single gold to show for from this particular event while Malaysia were the three-time defending champions.
That could not deter the Indian squad, which had so many players making their debut at the Commonwealth Games. 17-year-old Satwiksairaj Rankireddy combined with the 2010 women’s doubles gold medallist Ashwini Ponnappa to clinch an unexpected win over the Rio silver medallists Chan Peng Soon & Goh Liu Ying in a thrilling three-game duel, that set the tone for the rest of the tie.
Then Srikanth delivered a masterclass to get his maiden win over the former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei in a competition other than the PBL. Even though Chirag Shetty and Rankireddy went down fighting in two games, having saved a couple of match points, India’s golden girl Nehwal brought home the highly-coveted win in the end.
It was indeed a very special all-round team effort under high pressure and against all odds.
The 20-year-old Shetty, who is a CWG debutant this time, expressed his delight to Sportskeeda soon after the milestone win.
The Mumbai shuttler admitted that they did have hopes of winning a medal before embarking on their Gold Coast journey, but what unfolded on Monday was “totally unexpected”.
“Well, firstly getting into the Games there were high hopes and we wanted was to finish on the podium,” said Shetty.
“But this was totally unexpected. Starting off with Satwik-Ashwini, they definitely gave the perfect start by beating the current Olympic silver medallists. Then Srikanth beat Chong Wei for the first time in the BWF competition, barring the PBL.
“So, yeah, all in all, it feels really special to be a part of this team,” he added.
Shetty and the rest of Team India will now hope to translate this confidence into some medals from the individual competition, which gets under way on Tuesday.
