Badminton: Not just Kashyap, India's other men are also set for a quantum leap

When K Srikanth became the first Indian men’s singles player to win a major tournament outside the country since chief national coach Pullela Gopi Chand’s All England triumph in 2001, the question on the lips of many sports fan was – Srikanth who? While the public profile of badminton has grown by leaps and bounce in the past few years with the success of world number two Saina Nehwal and a consistent performance by the Indian squad in major events, the focus mostly remained on the women’s side with Saina winning titles are regular interval and the likes of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnapa adding the glamour quotient to go with their own court success. It didn’t help that no men’s singles player had managed to win any major title since national coach Pullela Gopi Chand’s All England triumph in 2001 and though there was a bunch of good shuttlers in Chetan Anand, Anup Sridhar and Aravind Bhat, they would only get noticed when they managed a upset win over some top ranked players and then again go into oblivion. [caption id=“attachment_891473” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sai Praneeth recently beat World No 4 Hun Yu. AFP[/caption] But while the women stars were grabbing the headlines with title triumphs, the men were slowly but surely carving a place for themselves on the international stage with as many as six players cementing their place in the top-50 in the world ranking and P Kashyap becoming the first shuttler since Gopi Chand to break into the top-10. Apart from Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram and Anand Pawar, most of these players are in their early 20s and have already started showing their mettle with some exceptional performances on the international stage. While Srikanth shot into sudden limelight with the win in the Thailand Grand Prix Gold title, we provide you with a sneak peak at the group of Indian men’s shuttlers you need to watch out for in the next couple of years. RMV Guru Sai Dutt (current world ranking 23): Raja Menuri Venkata Guru Sai Dutt’s first tryst with publicity came through an unwarranted allegation of doping by a senior player who was very upset at losing the match from a player who was just 16 at that time. Nothing was proved and Guru went on to become the first boys singles player to win a junior world champion bronze in 2008 along with the Commonwealth Youth Games gold and the singles title in the Dutch Junior. Guru’s biggest disadvantage has been his height but the 23-year-old counters it with his speed of movement on the court and his retrieving. He announced his arrival on the senior international stage with the Baharain Open title in 2008 and then went on to reach the final of the 2010 India Open Grand Prix gold. A spate of injuries have hampered Guru’s career but the youngster, who took up badminton after Gopi Chand’s 2001 All England triumph, has been one of the most consistent Indian shuttler on the circuit and that shows in his world ranking. B Sai Praneeth (current world ranking 61): The former junior national champion is considered to be the most talented among the group of players playing on the international circuit. The 21-year-old, who stunned world number 4 Yun Hu of Hong Kong in the opening round of the ongoing Singapore Open Super Series after going through the qualifying round, is a complete player and that showed in the kind of success he achieved in singles and doubles in the junior circuit. The 2010 World junior championship bronze medallist has a lazy elegance in the way he plays broke into the top 50 in February this year but had been struggling a bit in the last few months. However, the victory against Hu will definitely spur him up to raise the bar further. Sourabh Verma (current world ranking 42): The boy from Dhar, Madhya Pradesh makes up for the lack of strokes with his grit and determination and his ability to retrieve opponents shots from extreme positions. A workhorse on the court, Verma holds the record of winning the longest recorded match at one hour 59 minutes in the new scoring system. The 2011 national champion has already accounted for the likes of former world number one Peter Gade of Denmark along with Yun Hu and current world number six Kenichi Tago in the past with his best performance being the final appearance in the India Open GP gold in 2011, where he lost to former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. Prannoy HS (current world ranking 53): The lanky Kerala shuttler was found wanting for worlds when he stunned former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat at the India Open Super Series earlier this year. The 2010 Youth Olympics silver medallist, who boasts of a backhand smash just like the Indonesian, even stretched world number one Lee Chong Wei into the decider in the next round and followed it up with a quarterfinal appearance in the Thailand Open two weeks ago. Prannoy is a very aggressive player but would have to ensure that he stays away from injuries to maintain his consistency at the international level.