Not long ago, the emergence of world beaters like Prakash Padukone or Pullela Gopichand was a revelation for Indian badminton.
They set high standards and a lot of Indian players have been trying hard to emulate them. Some have met with a fair share of success while others have faded away.
Of course, the current torch-bearer for Indian badminton is undoubtedly Hyderabad-based Saina Nehwal. Trained by Gopichand, she has set the bar much higher for women’s badminton.
A current international ranking of four and a career-high of two is no joke. Nor is it easy to defeat Chinese players and win several super series tournaments. She has changed the way the badminton world looks at India, all over again. Just 21, she can probably stay in the top rung for about five or six years.
While Saina’s progress has been an incredible tale, the obvious question would be: who next? Who will take the baton from Saina? Have new talents been identified? If yes, then how good are they? How are the youngsters going to be groomed? These are questions that need to be answered. Once Saina has crossed the peak, there need to be many others fighting to emulate, if not surpass, her.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that India has quite a few talented youngsters waiting to burst on to the international scene and prove a point or two. They are working away silently. The country has been producing one top flight badminton player every few years, but in the new crop, the numbers are much higher. And it’s not just quantity; they seem to have quality too.
A good example would be PV Sindhu, a talented player and a trainee of Gopichand. Just in the first senior international year in 2011, she won several tournaments and made people take notice.
The lanky girl has been exhibiting a lot of qualities of a good player and with the advantage of height, she could be pretty effective. Also making their presence felt are Tanvi Lad, Arundhati Pantwane, PC Thulasi, Sanyogita Ghorpade and Sikki Reddy.
These players have been making the headlines in domestic tournaments by regularly challenging and beating some of the more established women’s singles players. They are a promising lot but whether they will reach the level Saina has, depends on a whole lot of factors, such as international exposure, how much funding they get and the effort they put in.
Among the men’s singles players, there has not been anyone as effective as Gopichand. However, Arvind Bhat, Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand have had their share of success. There is also a new group of players emerging. Brothers Sourabh and Sameer Verma, B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy, K Shrikant and Pratul Joshi are all promising.
Some of them show the spark now and then in international events and it is too early to judge how far they will go. But the heartening thing about these players is that their game has quickened and it would not be surprising to see these lads making valiant dives for a return. But then, international badminton is far quicker and challenging. Only time will tell.
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