India may be struggling in badminton singles, but there’s strength and depth in doubles at last | Badminton News

The criticism that India concentrated all its efforts on badminton singles players had some merit 15 years ago. But there was no option. For the sport to take off like it did and the trickle-down to even begin, Saina Nehwal needed to succeed at the top level. So, all attention was geared towards the singles flock courting success.The cribbing over doubles being ignored was justified – no country can even begin to whisper ‘powerhouse’ if three out of five categories remain unattended, and team events like Thomas & Uber Cup and Sudirman and Asian Mixed team events draw blanks. But pathways and executing plans in propping up doubles never really happened. Perhaps it is from these bombardings of constant criticisms from 2006-2014 that Pullela Gopichand’s brain crystallised the resolve to make doubles work.
The talk was then walked.
This week in a bittersweet happenstance, India’s three doubles pairings – in women’s doubles (Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, World No.10), men’s doubles (Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, World No.11) and mixed doubles (Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila, World No.17) find themselves ranked higher than the country’s best singles – Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu, both at No.18 respectively). It’s an alarming development – for India has had someone or the other, and at times multiple names in singles Top 10, since 2009. So, none in Top 15 induces worry lines.
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But the ‘glass half-full’ argument is that after years of trials, errors and tribulations, the doubles scene is beginning to look up. Not the one-off defiant pair or the power-leveraging talents in one of the three doubles shouldering the entire burden. But the beginnings of a whole system in place.
Satwik-Chirag were partly responsible for getting India the Thomas Cup, though it was the singles depth of HS Prannoy lining up third that tilted the scales. Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa started India’s run of a World Championship/ Olympics medal every August that ended in 2024 with 12 straight podium finishes.

Jwala-V Diju had earlier made the Top 10, proving that it was possible in a completely doubles-ignoramus country like India. Ashwini was the hero at the 2018 Commonwealth Games playing two doubles events, each of those 12 competition days, to get India the team gold, a rare success in the presence of Malaysia.
But work had to be put in, to make doubles well-rounded, and sustainable, not a one-off. Satwik-Chirag reaching World No.1 and winning the 2023 Asian Games was the high point, once thought unthinkable.
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But succeeding at doubles almost always starts with a stab to hearts: realignment of combinations, where the astute, trained eye of the coach permutes and arrives at what is best suited for the two shuttlers. Pairings get reshuffled and reassigned. It is here that the various national coaches, Indian and foreign, have had to persuade youngsters – from issuing them ultimatums to long cajoling sessions convincing them that new combines are good for them, from literally getting players to become friends, think professionally as a team to get them to gel and care for each other through injury breaks.
the time Satwik-Chirag fetched up on the scene, P Gopichand had enough authority and singles success to straight up convince Satwik to focus on doubles (Chirag always was on board). (ANI)
India never had in-born doubles expertise, like the Asian powerhouses – China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia – or even the Danes, with a long hory of success and quality sparring within the country. Taking seven different individuals of different maturity levels, and on their own mental trips, across men and women into the singles Top 10 to tease out high performance out of them all was an almighty task for Gopichand in his early coaching years. Still, he would follow up on the foreign coaches’ advice and for years, stressed on shoring up fitness levels of doubles shuttlers, even if the technical minutiae were left to the foreigners.
His fitness pitch might not have been happily bought the earliest batch in 2006, but the time Satwik-Chirag fetched up on the scene, he had enough authority and singles success to straight up convince Satwik to focus on doubles (Chirag always was on board), and at the same time, persuade Kidambi Srikanth, who loved doubles, that singles was his forte.
All in all, those difficult conversations of partnerships and choosing doubles were something the national coach got pat. the time his daughter Gayatri walked up to him and told him she fancied doubles, the national camp had been rolling out an elite programme for doubles with consent Olympics qualification.Story continues below this ad
It is still work in progress, but a bunch of Indian coaches have upskilled enough after their playing years to be good enough to guide Indians on court and not be left hamstrung if foreign coaches leave in doubles. Vijaydeep Singh was an important link, a jolly coach with plenty of Punjabi optimism that shielded young players’ confidence from crumbling even when they lost so often. First for Pranav Jerry Chopra, and now Dhruv Kapila, Vijaydeep was crucial in facilitating their adjustment to Hyderabad.
Arun Vishnu, a former mixed doubles shuttler, literally executed the coaching programme that Gopichand designed for Treesa Jolly-Gayatri, and ensured Tanisha Crasto qualified for the Olympics with Ashwini, with only top 13 eligible pairings making it on pure rankings.
Second wind
Tanisha also made the Top 20 with Ishaan Bhatnagar and when that partnership went kaput, coaches Arun Vishnu, Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri have resurrected the Dhruv-Tanisha combine and brought them into the Top 20, with a realic Top 10 push.
Malaysian coach Tan Kim Her is back, and while Satwik-Chirag are yet to hit the high chords, all indications are that a good crop of pairings, below the elite level, will start hitting the circuit as soon as they are ready for the physical grind.Story continues below this ad
The last few years have been very quiet for singles, except Lakshya Sen’s Olympic semifinals, and the crumbling of singles is worrying with the next batch struggling to break through. But there’s a whole lot of quiet work that has gone on in doubles which keeps the sport alive, even if the singles stars collapse shockingly.
Work literally starts at 5 am daily, and doubles pairings are put in the hard yards, also ensuring domestic sparring is available to the top names. Coach Tan is responsible for a whole group, not just one player or a combination. Their sleep patterns, strength and speed metrics are monitored daily, and on-court drills are deployed at very sophicated levels, with high intensity corner work and movement repetitions. When playing abroad – the training days in between two tournaments are one of the most intense in technique corrections, and match-day makes are worked upon on doubly punishing training days.
Hearteningly, their game styles are not reliant on the nationality of the foreign coach, as there’s always fear of the coaches jettisoning India roles for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
They are playing a hybrid style, evolving a unique Indian way that doesn’t bank on just speed or power like other East Asians. Variations in strokes, pace manipulation, placement play and an extremely cerebral way of picking points is encouraged, without any compromises made on fitness. Injuries can be sapping, but on court, India’s doubles is giving a better account of itself currently than singles.Story continues below this ad
Keeping injuries at bay remains a pan-India concern, be it singles or doubles. And the elites – Satwik-Chirag, Treesa-Gayatri, Tanisha-Dhruv – will need to show titles for all this effort. The second rung will need to show the ability to step up, before doubles is declared a proper success. But this week was a good start.
Rankings attest to consency – they might also prick the pride of the singles bunch and jolt them from their lull.