Road to Asian Games 2018 : Time for Indian badminton to show some teeth

The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 will go down in history as a watershed moment for Indian badminton.

Following an astonishing silver at the Rio Olympics 2016 by giant killer P V Sindhu, the Indian badminton has come a long way, the current Commonwealth Games being their most successful stint ever.

By the time the badminton segment came to an end at Gold Coast CWG, India surpassed archrival Malaysia for the first time in the tally, winning a whopping total of 6 medals, with 2 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze medal.

Shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu created history, when they set up an all India final in the women's singles category, a first for Indian badminton in any major event.

An improved show at Asian Championships

The brilliant form continued to a significant extent at the Asian Badminton Championships 2018, held at Wuhan, China.

Though India managed to garner only 2 bronze medals from this tournament, this is still a huge improvement, owing to more than four Indian shuttlers making it to the quarterfinals of an event, thereby earning a ticket for the all-important BWF World Championships 2018.

This is easily one of the most competitive tournaments in the world badminton, given that the best are all Asians, be it China, or Malaysia, or even Japan or South Korea for that matter.

A challenging road ahead for Jakarta Asiad

Not an easy task for Indian badminton to reclaim glory

The Championships, however, serve as a good wakeup call for Team INDIA, who need to be in their best form if they want to shine at the Jakarta Asiad.

In the previous edition at Incheon Asiad 2014, the Indian women's team surprised one and all to make it to the semifinals, earning themselves a podium finish for the first time since Seoul 1986 Asiad, where the Indian men's team, comprising legendary shuttlers Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi, had last won the bronze medal.

This time, India is in a much better shape than the previous edition, and should go out all guns blazing to better their Incheon tally, and also better the record of slain badminton player Syed Modi, who is till date the only Indian badminton player to have won a medal in the singles category of the badminton event at any Asian Games, when he won a bronze at the 1982 Delhi Asiad.

The hopefuls

Strong medal hopefuls at Jakarta Asiad 2018

While it could be quite early to determine who can win what, we do have some strong medal hopefuls for the badminton segment of the Jakarta Asian Games 2018, that could strengthen India's hopes for a brilliant show at Tokyo Olympics 2020.

To begin with, there is the women's team, who had won a historic bronze in the last edition. Before the Asian Games, they'll have a brilliant warmup at the upcoming Uber Cup, where they'll aim for the best.

If the team succeeds to garner a podium finish at this tournament and maintain the enthusiasm of the Commonwealth Games at the Jakarta Asiad, they can very well create history just by changing the color of their bronze medals.

Though one might be uncertain about the fate of the doubles' players at these Asian Games, the same cannot be said about the star-studded shuttlers representing India in the respective singles' category.

In the men's singles, the onus lies on Kidambi Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy to emulate and if possible, better the record of Syed Modi's bronze medal finish with a podium finish at the Jakarta Asian Games.

Ex-World No.1 Srikanth needs to overcome his tendency to crunch down in crucial knockouts, as seen in the Commonwealth Games finals.

Despite beating Lee Chong Wei in the route to a historic mixed team gold at the Commonwealth Games, Srikanth failed to overcome in the finals, eventually settling for the silver.

On the other hand, H.S. Prannoy will look forward to better his own mark and compensate for his tragic loss at the Gold Coast CWG with a podium finish at the Jakarta Asiad 2018. Given that he has a reputation of landing major upsets, the task shouldn't be difficult for this Youth Olympics 2010 silver medalist.

Can Sindhu and Saina repeat the Gold Coast magic?

Can Sindhu and Saina repeat the wonders of Gold Coast CWG at Jakarta Asiad?

However, the centre of attraction would be the lethal duo of badminton players Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu, who are aiming for a historic podium finish at the Jakarta Asian Games.

A veteran of two Asian Games, Saina's best performance has been a quarterfinals' finish at both Guangzhou 2010 and Incheon 2014 editions of the Asian Games.

It has been nothing better for P V Sindhu, whose only appearance at the Asiad lasted only till the Round of 16, where she lost to the Indonesian shuttler, Bellaetrix Manuputty.

So, if the two want to make themselves count in the run-up to the BWF World Championships, they need to make that one extra push to clinch a podium finish for themselves.

If they manage to repeat the feat of Commonwealth Games, where the duo set an unbelievable, all INDIA final, it would be nothing less than historic for Indian badminton.