Aiming High
The Indian Badminton Team is poised to achieve greater accolades considering their recent achievements.
The Indian Badminton Team after their historic win Credits: Badminton Association of India
Shubham Kulkarni
Pune: A 14 member Indian team, led by PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen won a bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships 2023 held at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in UAE.
Placed in Group B, the Indian Badminton team topped their group by winning against Kazakhstan, UAE and Malaysia. In the Quarter-finals they won against Hong Kong, 3-2.
Facing the defending champions China, in the semi-finals India went down fighting hard, as they lost against China 2-3. HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu both lost the opening match of the tie, giving China a 2-0 opening lead in the tie. But the tie wasn’t over as the men’s doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Chirag Shetty and the women’s double pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their respective matches, leveling the tie 2-2. But Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar lost their mixed doubles match and the tie 2-3. India had to settle for a bronze medal which was for the first time.
The bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships gives high hopes and high expectations in the future team events. In the recent years, Indian badminton scaled new heights as the Indian Men’s team won a gold medal at the Thomas Cup 2022, by beating Indonesia 3-0, and not to forget about the individual gold medals won by Lakshay Sen, PV Sindhu, and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
The hopes from the Indian Badminton Team will be high as they play their next team event at the Total BWF Sudirman Cup 2023 which will be played from 14-21 May 2023 in Suzhou, China.
