Jwala Gutta on Thomas Cup triumph: 'Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty just happened. We have no system for doubles'

Jonathan Christie looped the shuttle high towards the back of the court, Kidambi Srikanth had it in his sights, the 29-year-old jumped, and smashed the bird into the corner and past the Indonesian. India had just made history. India, which had always come up short in the men’s team event - Thomas Cup - had won it. They had beaten 14-time champions Indonesia to lift the title.

The media clips and repeats on news channels showed that moment . Moment of former World No 1 triumphing and the Indian contingent rushing to him in unison. Much deserved celebration for him, as well, with six straight wins.

If one zooms out, they would notice the key differences between now and before in the Indian badminton team. Over the course of the competition in Bangkok, it is the doubles which proved decisive. The pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won all but one match through the week.

In the final against Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Mohammad Ahsan, they saved four match points to ensure India went into the second singles with a 2-0 advantage rather than at 1-1. That lead would prove decisive enough to put pressure on Christie who didn’t produce his best.

Satwik-Chirag would win each of their matches, bar the dead rubber against Chinese Taipei, to reduce the burden on the singles to get the team out of a logjam.

The importance of the doubles can be ascertained by the fact that only the presence of doubles specialists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, coupled with singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, earned India a bronze medal in the Uber Cup in 2014 and 2016.

The men though struggled to find a doubles pair that could carry or pull off wins on a regular in a tough team event. B Sumeeth Reddy/Manu Atri and Akshay Dewalkar/Pranaav Jerry Chopra came through the ranks but were hardly world beaters.

This celebration of doubles comes as vindication for Gutta who has pushed for doubles to be taken seriously for a long time. “I’m glad that I was able to make a path for the juniors to take double seriously. I think before me, the doubles was never taken seriously. Only two retired singles players used to play doubles. I didn’t have anybody to look up to,” said Gutta exclusively to Firstpost.com.

“It just happened that Satwik and Chirag became a pair. There is no system setup for doubles. So with a population like ours, we have just one established doubles pair and winning the Thomas Cup. We have to be consistent from here on.”

In a flurry of tweets after the Thomas Cup triumph, Gutta questioned the contribution of former national coach Pullela Gopichand towards the event. “When we (Gutta and Ponappa) came back from the London Olympics, having played one of the best matches of our lives, he didn’t appreciate our efforts. These kind of things hurt us, hurts the game. Now, Satwik-Chirag will be spoken about - which also is being done because they belong to his academy.”

At the same time as questioning Gopichand’s contribution to the doubles setup, she didn’t hesitate from appreciating Vimal Kumar for his role. “(SM) Arif Sir had gotten a doubles specialist for a national camp and I attended it. Then Vimal sir became the chief coach and he got a doubles coach. He encouraged (Valiyaveetil) Diju and I to play together. When coaches changed again in 2006, everything towards doubles changed.”

For Gutta, it is important to nurture the youngsters early to continue the line of doubles players. “At 14-15 years old, players should be encouraged to take up doubles. Satwik-Chirag happened and they were given the exposure. But if we are able to bring up at least five or six pairs in men’s, women’s and mixed doubles, only then we can expect consistent results,” she added.

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