Why HS Prannoy’s Smash is Badminton’s Many-Splendoured Thing

Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo wasn’t defending badly. It’s just that HS Prannoy didn’t let the Indonesian’s mind settle, or allow him to stay upright on his feet. So off Chico went flying – diving left, then diving right; protecting himself against body attacks while the shuttle zipped to the flanks, and then thinking of flying towards the lines, while Prannoy peppered him with a body smash. All in a vain attempt to get an accurate read on the Prannoy Smash. Trying to figure which of the dozen variations of the Smash was in-coming.
Chico’s racquet-head went into a tizzy in Round 2 at Malaysia’s shuttle cauldron, the Axiata, as it attempted to glean the cross smash from the straight one. And he was thoroughly confounded when he shaped up to face the straight smash, but it happily went cross.
The commentators meantime, as if voicing over a retrospective on Prannoy’s smashing abilities, gushed over two qualities – how calmly and silently his game roared on the circuit. And how “well-placed” his smashes were, despite not boasting and screaming out loud in how powerful they could get. Their placement was as skilled as it was cerebral – the power, usually what singles players bank on, was incidental.

Top 10 ranking’s latest entrant at No 8, isn’t the newest whizkid with a wicked power-smash, turbo-charged with a speed kick. Prannoy knows to smash alright. It’s just that he has a dozen variations on his smashes, and a clever mind that happily juggles them depending on where he can tangle his opponent of the day, and accumulate the next point.
HS Prannoy in action at the 2023 Malaysia Open. (Twitter/@PRANNOYHSPRI)
The story of the Prannoy Smash (and its many avatars with the same iteration effect) has a wonderfully looping arc – unlike the scything, thwacking straight line kill from point A to point B on the court floor that smashes tend to be. It started as a fan-boy tribute to Taufik Hidayat.
Prannoy always scalped big names – the big titles not so much. But from Taufik Hidayat, he borrowed the tag of being a ‘Backhand Beast’. The name came from the Indian’s ability to go across his body and strike the shuttle somewhere above his left ear, and smother it with the turned back face of the racquet sending it deep and cross as backhands tend to be. Both in his junior days and early senior years, the upcoming talent was promising to do to badminton what Jimmy George did for volleyball: make the attacking smash an unforgettable spectacle.
But of course, the backhand attack steals precious seconds from your reaction time, and the forehand flank needs covering too. So over many seasons of struggling with a multitude of issues – gut issues, the typical badminton injuries, a confidence crisis, up and down results and stiff domestic competition, Prannoy built himself a quiverful of masterly smashing arrows, going beyond just the one backhand brahmastra.
“He always had that smash” those who have watched him on the circuit since his early years, keep saying. The ‘that’ could be the backhand boom or the forehand cross shot, but an evolution was underway. Often accused of being an ‘overthinker’, Prannoy was actually putting all that over-thinking and hyper-analysing to great use in broadening his smash repertoire. Something was cooking, and the wafts promised to be delish. The round-the-head straight smash was in the making.
Prannoy scripted a stellar run in 2022 as he regained his world No. 8 ranking from the 2019 lows of 34, riding on some fantastic performances throughout the year.(FILE)
Coach Siadatullah remembers trotting the ‘Backhand Beast’ around for juniors to learn from watching him at the Gopichand academy. And how Prannoy would wave away all comparisons to the great Taufik shyly. But was the signature stroke going to be enough?
Reducing his over-reliance on the backhand smash, Prannoy gradually found consency on the one that arches over the head as the curving hand sends it down-the-line. It’s solid control and precision required from the forearm to 1. Not naturally hit diagonal cross, with the obvious angle of gravity and 2. To go straight, locking the wr while still producing the power.
The backhand smashes looked spectacular when it fell right, but used to get him a lot of errors. On the round-the-head though, Prannoy struck a higher percentage in accuracy, without torquing his back a lot.
Most of this confidence came from getting under the shuttle quickly – the singlemost important buildup to a smash, that can render it lethal, or alternatively, wasted effort prolonging a rally. It’s the running legs that get you into position to smash, to use the shoulder and arms to fetch the winners and set-ups, and offer options in deception – go straight or kill cross.
HS Prannoy in action. (File)
India’s earliest Top Tenner of the last decade – P Kashyap who kept harping to Prannoy to realise how strong a weapon his smash is, explains what’s changed: “He always had the cross smash (from back and forehand) but wasn’t confident about the straight one. But the whole of last year, he’s able to hit the straight well. It’s because he gets under the shuttle a lot more which helps him create deception.”
The reputation of the backhand creates a further layer of illusion: it will always nag at an opponent if he might move towards a backhand stroke – which could go either side, or take it round the head, which too could go either flank. The variations – and their mere possibility – make him a nightmare for rival analysts.
There are other trinkets in that smashing boom box too. There’s a short angled one from just behind the middle of the court that pushes the opponent back. There’s a full-blooded cross one – from his baseline spanning the whole diagonal length to the opponent’s. There’s that one from the mid-court like a NBA star’s fadeaway – where he reels back and sends the smash forward – not sliced but leashed. The most definitive is the hop smash going down the line. And lest we forget – the archetypal proper jump smash – cross. All these, before we even get to the round the head deceptions. It’s what gets commentators to wonder about the breadth of his “well-placed” smashes.
Funnily, he isn’t the best smasher in India: both Kidambi Srikanth and Sai Praneeth, and even doubles star Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, have mean versions, speedier and more accurate, far more defined in their contours. But the shoulder power – what Kashyap calls ‘weight’ – on the smash, combines the best with accuracy this last year, as he gets into position perfectly.

The reason why Prannoy can hold his own against the new wave of talent – be it Loh Kean Yew – an attacking, no-holds-barred Hulk smasher, or drag Kodai Naraoka, the Japanese speed whiz into deciders, and leave Chico splayed, is because Prannoy is exploring the entire gamut of badminton’s smashing – using angles and nuanced placement. Power and speed are the ‘all-in’ version of badminton’s poker. Prannoy though – his poker face giving-away-nothing in tow – fancies 10-15 shots in a rally to get his opponent out of breath and defensively exhausted, before he pulls out the smash, which ain’t bad for a 30-year-old.
HS Prannoy’s smash may be a set-up on some days, on other days, a kill. But it sure seeks to boggle the living daylights out of his opponents. It’s fear minus the menace, bordering on admiration once the match and small matter of win-or-lose is done.