Thomas Cup is one of the most prestigious badminton tournaments in the world, where the men’s national teams participate in the competition to win the title. India recently created history by winning its first Thomas Cup trophy. It is definitely huge for Indian badminton.
In recent years, India have experienced rapid growth in badminton with their new generations of shuttlers. While the women shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Ashwini Ponnappa, Jwala Gutta, N. Sikki Reddy etc have started to inspire the nation in this sport with their regular successes, the men shuttlers have also grown up with the talents like Srikanth Kidambi, H.S. Prannoy, B. Sai Praneeth, Lakshya Sen, Chirag Shetty etc.
Though the Indian players, both men and women, have recently experienced top class successes in various prestigious tournaments, the Indian national badminton team didn’t win a world tournament before the recent Thomas Cup.
Thomas Cup 2022: India powerfully handled challenges
India played their first final in the Thomas Cup history in the 2022 edition, and they finished it as the new champions. India initially qualified for the Quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup 2022 after finishing in the second position in Group C. They then beat the top badminton teams like Malaysia, Denmark and the record-holder 14-time Thomas Cup winners Indonesia in the Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Final respectively to clinch this memorable trophy.
In both the Quarter-finals and Semi-finals of the Thomas Cup 2022, India started from behind (by 0-1) but they later took a lead (2-1) and ultimately finished as the winners from the level (3-2). However, despite facing the best national team in Thomas Cup history, the first time Thomas Cup finalists just thrashed them by the 3-0 scoreline.
In this entire competition, the Indian players were desperate to bring out their best at the right time and it helped the nation to achieve a memorable success in their badminton history.
The recent success is a result of players’ consistent improvement
While it is still a surprising result for many experts, the players have worked really hard for years to achieve this extraordinary result. Since hosting this tournament in 2014, India have qualified for all the next Thomas Cup tournaments, just like their recent Uber Cup qualification consistency. As the Indian players’ rankings are improving gradually, their participation chances are getting higher in this world championship.
The Indian players’ continuous improvement is now helping the nation to grow up as a strong team in this sport. We confidently feel that it is just a starter with a huge possibility for this growing badminton nation.
The cricket crazy country is now growing up in other different sports and badminton’s gradual successes are inspiring the nation to do better in the other sports.
