On May 15, precisely a yr after India gained a historic first Thomas Cup title (the boys’s crew world championship), India had been knocked out within the group stage of the Sudirman Cup (the blended crew world championship) after a 5-0 loss to Malaysia.

It got here a day after a 4-1 loss to Chinese Taipei within the opener, sealing India’s destiny inside two days and persevering with the seek for an elusive medal at one in every of badminton’s greatest crew competitions.

The stark distinction between the 2 outcomes a yr aside raises questions, as an important interval begins with the Asian Games and Olympic qualification cycle commencing.

Even in what was dubbed the ‘Group of Death‘ with two excellent groups up in opposition to them, these margins of loss (4-1 and 5-0) are a little bit of a let-down. Especially for the reason that hope of one other historic first medal was based on the crew’s current good performances.

In February this yr, India had beaten Malaysia 4-1 within the group stage of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, months after losing the Commonwealth Games final to them. That outcome – which meant India prevented China within the quarterfinal and attain the semis to secure a medal – felt just like the extension of Indian badminton’s prolific period.

So, what modified?

In the identical format, in opposition to largely the identical crew, in a span of some months, there have been wildly contrasting fortunes.

Then, the primary match was males’s singles and HS Prannoy got here from a sport right down to seal an exciting 18-21, 21-13, 25-23 win over world no 4 Lee Zii Jia.

Now, India opted for Kidambi Srikanth after Prannoy misplaced to Chou Tien-chen a day earlier than, and the previous world No 1 had a horrid outing. He was consistently error-prone whereas taking place 16-21, 11-21 to the present world No 8 Lee Zii Jia. By the tip, it was all one-way site visitors as Srikanth saved sending photographs lengthy and didn’t make it a combat in simply the second match of the tie.

The tie began with blended doubles, which has lengthy been India’s weak spot. It was compounded by Ishaan Bhatnagar’s damage on the Nationals, which meant that the scratch pair of Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa confronted the world No 8 pair of Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Lai Jemie – with predictable outcomes.

India had been already going into this contest one down and the onus was on the singles stars to make sure the boys’s and ladies’s doubles had one thing to play for. If there was to be one ‘straightforward’ win in opposition to Malaysia, it needed to be in ladies’s singles the place India’s PV Sindhu is a veteran.

In February, Sindhu performed Ling Ching Wong within the tie in opposition to Malaysia and gained with ease. Now, Sindhu was made to battle in a troublesome three-setter, shedding to world No 30 Goh Jin Wei for the primary time in 5 matches – together with two on the CWG. It got here a day after she ran Tai Tzu Ying shut and performed one in every of her higher matches since her five-month damage layoff.

The 21-14, 10-21, 20-22 scoreline alludes to the rollercoaster it was. Sindhu cruised via the primary sport and struggled via the second. In the decider, she was down 2-11 on the midway interval and all appeared misplaced earlier than she mounted a shocking fightback.

Goh Jin Wei delivers a �� efficiency for Malaysia ����#SudirmanCupFinals #Suzhou2023 pic.twitter.com/zIeocqwG3Z

– BWF (@bwfmedia) May 15, 2023

She gained 12 of the following 15 factors to make it 14-15 after which drew degree at 19-19, earlier than saving a match level for 20-20. Two fast photographs and Goh had sealed the match, and the tie for Malaysia. “At 20-20, I felt there should have been a bit more rallies. My strokes hit my frame and went mid-court and she finished it off,” Sindhu later stated.

The tie was accomplished and dusted already by the point current Asian champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty performed their nemeses, world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. They made it a match in each video games however couldn’t forestall an eighth straight loss, 18-21, 19-21.

The ultimate match was ladies’s doubles, the place in February Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly had shocked Commonwealth Games champions Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan 23-21, 21-15 to present India the win. This time, it was one other straight-games loss.

Indeed besides Sindhu, no different Indian managed to pressure a decider in opposition to Malaysia. Against Chinese Taipei, all matches besides Prannoy went to the third sport, with solely Gayatri and Treesa successful.

It’s not an excellent search for India. It’s no catastrophe to lose to raised groups however the 4-1 and 5-0 margins do not precisely mirror the flexibility of this crew. The lack of combat, even in a loss, was a giant blip. However, the silver lining is solely the very fact that there have been expectations at an occasion as massive because the Sudirman Cup, the place India has by no means gained a medal and solely three nations have gained gold.

Indian badminton has been on the rise as a crew and that brings with it its personal form of stress. Sindhu has discovered to deal with this, however most others are nonetheless new to it.

The greatest lesson subsequently is consistency. At the Thomas Cup final yr, India had three males’s singles gamers in good kind that made the historic win doable. At the Sudirman Cup, just one participant per self-discipline is allowed and that ought to have been a power for India. Indeed, they swapped Prannoy for Srikanth within the hope that his good run of kind (he beat Lakshya Sen final week on the nationwide choice trials for the Asian Games) may work for India.

But that was to not be, as no Indian males’s singles participant has made a mark this season but as they’d final yr. Lakshya Sen has fallen right down to the 20s on this planet rating already. And whereas Satwik and Chirag’s efficiency right here might be written off as a blip, given they got here in useless rubbers, they nonetheless had been losses for a pair in red-hot kind.

As the Olympic cycle begins, consistency goes to be key for India. It is simply too quickly to learn an excessive amount of into this efficiency and there are positives to depend as nicely. Sindhu combating it out like her pre-surgery self is an effective signal, for instance. But these two lopsided outcomes have additionally highlighted that Indian badminton has a number of work to do because the race to Paris 2024 begins.