 "First Sports Exclusive: Parupalli Kashyap on Lakshya Sen, PV Sindhu's chances at Paris Olympics and more")
Former Indian badminton player Parupalli Kashyap believes that the country’s shuttlers have everything in them to tackle pressure and go all the way in the 2024 Paris Olympics. PV Sindhu has fought injury battles in recent years whereas young shuttler Lakshya Sen is making his Olympics debut. Sindhu is a two-time Olympic medallist, having won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2021.
Kashyap feels that despite her recent dip in form and a lower ranking (13th rank), the Hyderabad shuttler still has the edge due to her experience of playing well in major tournaments. In May, Sindhu had reached the final of the Malaysia Masters, but lost to China’s Wang Zhi Yi. She then suffered a last 16 exit in the Singapore Open Super 750 and a last 32 exit in the Indonesia Open Super 1000.
“Sindhu has done well in both the Olympics. She has been a performer for so many years. Sindhu won’t be under pressure, she has not choked in matches where you’ve got to feel pressure. She has always done well. She has the edge. Even though her form and her ranking doesn’t say so, I think she always enters major competitions thinking she has an edge because of her previous performances,” Kashyap, an expert with JioCinema for the Olympics, told Rupha Ramani during an exclusive interview on the First Sports show.
Lakshya Sen, on the other hand, had reached the summit clash of the 2022 All England Championships where he lost to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. Sen’s best finish in a tournament this year has been reaching the semi-finals of the All England Championships, losing to Jonatan Christie.
“Lakshya’s first time. I’m sure he’s very excited. I know him as a person, I have travelled with him. I am sure he is raring to go and is extremely excited to play. Even though Lakshya is young, he is quite experienced. The last two years, he’s been playing in the circuit.
“Two years back, he played the All England Final, and since then he has not dropped very drastically. Only a couple of months in between he had a patch where he had lost a couple of first round matches. Otherwise, he has always made it to the quarters and above,” said the 37 year-old.
Kashyap hailed the way how the 22 year-old fought Kidambi Srikanth for a spot in the Olympics. “To qualify for the Olympics under pressure is a huge achievement because he was in a tight race with Kidambi Srikanth. He can handle pressure very well,” he continued.
The Indian men’s doubles duo of Satwiksar Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have enjoyed a remarkable run over the last two years, including winning the 2023 Thomas Cup with the Indian team as well as winning the men’s doubles gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. “I think Chirag and Satwik have been so consistent for the last two-three years. They did well in a big event like the Asian Games, they won the gold there, so they should be surely confident,” said the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
He was also praise for women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Castro.” For Ashwini, it’s her third Olympics, very experienced with a very young partner full of energy, that is Tanisha,” adding that the duo were not under any pressure whatsoever.
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