Coach Tan, who first teamed up Satwik-Chirag, begins second stint with doubles pair | Cricket News

Malaysian coach Tan Kim Her, who first brought together India’s celebrated pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, returns to India taking charge of the doubles teams. Coach Tan reached Hyderabad Sunday night, Satwik confirmed on the sidelines of Go Sports Awards in Mumbai.Tan replaces Danish Mathias Boe who took the Indians to the pinnacle of world rankings and helped them win the Asian Games gold ad Thomas Cup besides Indonesian Open, but twice faced disappointment at Olympics, 2024 being severely soul-crushing. While Boe fired up their rise to Top 5 and helped pick a World’s bronze, the current No 9 pair will aim for All England and the World Championship in coming years, guided the Malaysian.
It is a highly anticipated reunion, given it was the Malaysian’s brainwave to link up the two tall shuttlers, who ahead of the Rio Olympics in 2016 played with different partners – Satwik with Krishna Prasad Garaga and Chirag with MR Arjun. But Tan saw immediate potential in the two even while they were playing against each other in a 2014 junior international final.
Tan had however taken up a better rewarding offer with Japan, post 2017, even as Satwik-Chirag were still picking international series titles – starting Mauritius in 2016 within months of pairing up. Their first tour title would come in 2018 at Hyderabad.
Asian Games Gold Medall Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty won against Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia in the semifinals at Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2024 at IG Stadium, New Delhi on Saturday. (Express photo Praveen Khanna)
Satwik reckoned they would pick off from where they left with the coach, with lot of warmth and affection. “Coach Tan was supposed to come before last Olympics but for some reason, it couldn’t happen. 2022, I think. But he was very keen, he wanted to do something for India, for us. Everytime we go to a tournament he talks like he’s still our coach. So he has that special bond for us, maybe we are like new babies for him. He paired us. So we became world number 1 from there — from nowhere, we became world number 1. So he has that special bond with us,” he recalled adding they would always miss Boe. “Obviously we miss Boe. We are used to him,” he said.
Coach Tan is also expected to help prop up other pairings, and take the doubles progress one step further.
Both Satwik and Chirag were not averse to playing doubles but needed to be convinced that they could gel together. Tan with his foresight had known this could take time as they belonged to different geographies and regions, and were being asked to break prior partnerships. Tan had always insed that they needed to work on their personal bond, form a friendship for court chemry to then organically feed off that mutual trust. He neither rushed them, nor pushed them to make it work, leaving it to them to build a bond.
But what he and national coach Pullela Gopichand immediately noticed was how lethal they could be together, given their tall aggressive games. Chirag, had the heavier lifting to do in terms of learning the net-game from scratch, but Satwik too needed to be convinced to step out of his comfort zone and give the combination a try. Tan, with Gopichand coaxing Satwik, worked on building the base of the partnership while Boe helped them take off towards immense, if incomplete success.
India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty play against Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto during their men’s doubles badminton group stage match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
“We are very happy he’s come, it’s at the right time. We are focussing more on major tournaments now,” Satwik would add. The duo made semis at China Masters recently, but are confronted with newer pairings coming up.
While the duo can beat just about every pair on the back of their attack, their games also have some very visible tactical gaps that need filling. And coach Tan will be aware that strategising at the topmost level for their specific game, fighting for top missing titles, will be hugely different from the early challenges of fusing their wills.
Satwik said details were unclear. “We haven’t started that. I don’t know how his training will be. Because we are used to that European style of play,” he said.
Tan will also need to factor in the wear and tear of injuries over the last five years. “When we were young, we used to just follow him. But now maybe it’ll be vice versa…our suggestions, maybe what works for our body. That time we were young, our bodies could do whatever (pushed in training), he says. Now he has said we’ll sit and talk and decide what will work for you according to your body,” Satwik added.
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Obviously we miss Boe. We are used to him. Coach Tan was supposed to come last Olympics but for some reason, it couldn’t happen. 2022, i think. But he was very keen, he wanted to do something for India, for us. Everytime we go to a tournament he talks like he’s still our coach. So he has that special bond for us, maybe we are like new babies for him. He paired us. So we became world number 1 from there — from nowhere, we became world number 1. So he has that special bond with us. We are very happy he’s come, it’s at the right time. We are focussing more on major tournaments now.
Where can he make a difference?
We haven’t started that. I don’t know how his training will be. Because we are used to that European style of play. When we were young, we used to just follow him. But now maybe it’ll be vice versa…our suggestions, maybe what works with our body. That time we were young, our bodies can do whatever he says. Now he has said we’ll sit and talk and decide what will work for you according to your body.