Can PV Sindhu inspire India to win the Sudirman Cup? 

As ticking boxes goes, the Sudirman Cup medal might be the only one left to check in PV Sindhu’s illustrious career besides the Olympic gold. She has twice medalled at Uber Cup – a bronze in 2014 and 2016, five times at the World Championship and twice at the Olympics besides her CWG gold and Asian Games silver. In her individual ambition and ability to do the heavy-lifting is tied India’s destiny at the Sudirman Cup in Suzhou China this week. Though, team events mean every win is worth that one precious point and equal and you can’t even get a sniff of metal unless the doubles get going. But it is in the PV Sindhu habit of raising her game for the big occasion that India will look to take a shot at a podium that never looked achievable before this, given India’s brittleness in doubles.
Drawn in the tricky Group C, India are pooled with Malaysia, Chinese Taipei and Australia, needing to finish top two after factoring in all the intricate faceoffs. Rarely has India sounded this confident, and it riffs this self-assurance from the doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shettty, on a serious red-hot streak, and women’s doubles of Gayatri Gopichand Pullela and Treesa Jolly who in the past 6 months have shown the capability of challenging the top pairings of the world. The men’s singles is still riding the confidence wave of the Thomas Cup triumph from last summer to do its thing. But it is in Sindhu’s performance that India will look for that spark of inspiration.
PV Sindhu in action. (FILE)
Sindhu hasn’t been in the grandest of forms – returning from injury, and lost the Spain Madrid Masters finals to Gregoria Mariska Tunjung on what was clearly a very off day. Malaysia have Goh Jin Wei, though they could throw into the mix, Letshanaa Karupathevan as well. The Taiwan tie pits Sindhu against her career nemesis, Tai Tzu Ying, her toughest assignment in the group stage. A win against what has been the run of play could provide just the spark that’s needed to emerge from this group unscathed and with India’s new reputation of being great ‘team event’ contenders enhanced.
In multiple international previews, it has been noted that India collectively perform at a higher level in team events than in individual battles – something proven at the Thomas Cup and earlier this year at the Mixed Team Asian Championships. The camaraderie might well inject confidence into Sindhu to shrug off her indifferent form and take on the likes of Tai Tzu Ying knowing she has the cushioning of the high performing men’s doubles and men’s singles, and a very competent women’s doubles. For her to be aware that she’s not out there fighting alone against a 5-17 head to head hory against Tai, but has the entire squad rooting for her. It can be viewed as pressure or privilege, but the Indian decibel levels and aggressive clappers will be the wind beneath her sails at Suzhou.
Team events demand a different temperament, and are hardly ever ‘just another match’. Satwik-Chirag maintain that they learnt the art of finishing coolly through the many thrillers they played in the course of the victorious Thomas Cup campaign last May. Prone to botching the endgame before, India’s most consent pairing, absorbed and embraced the pressure involved which would go on to help them when they competed in individual events on the Tour. So, while trailing a set and 13-7 down in the second at the Asian Championships, they could still believe in a turnaround and effect it, because they had managed those hes in the noisy encounters against Malaysia and Indonesia at the Thomas Cup.

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India’s team has been bonding as a unit since the last Commonwealth Games at Birmingham, where though it could not defend its gold medal from the Gold Coast, it at least brought the players and their support staff while they train at different centres, together. The lost final to Malaysia in fact reinvigorated the players to do better in the individual events, and the momentum and camaraderie have carried through to the Mixed Asian Team event and now leading into the Sudirman Cup.
While India harbour hopes of winning the Sudirman Cup, it is notable that China have won 12 of the 17 editions played, and made the last 14 straight finals winning a staggering dozen times. Only three countries have ever won the title in its 33 year old hory. Challenging for the Sudirman Cup while playing China in China is a different level of difficulty altogether. PV Sindhu, the most storied of Indian shuttlers, loves these challenges and has always thrived on hory-making occasions. While India’s Thomas Cup winning squad carry with them the experience of having triumphed in the biggie, there isn’t another athlete in India than Sindhu who has stepped up to the big stage, contested finals and found success or bounced back from failures as much as her.

Be it the 2016 Olympic finals or the three back-to-back-to-back World Championship title clashes 2017 through 2019, Sindhu could rise to the occasion – never mind win or loss, but a fighting Sindhu was a given. It’s been three quiet years apart from the Olympics bronze as Tai Tzu Ying, Akane Yamagucghi, Chen Yufei and An Se Young have forged ahead, but the Sudirman Cup offers an opportunity to play those marquee clashes she was so well known for before. Surrounded her team, all pulling in the same direction, this might well be the best opportunity for Sindhu to complete the set, and clutch the beautiful Sudirman trophy.