Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (left) and Chirag Shetty after winning their match in the Thomas Cup final.© AFP
The Indian men’s badminton team reached a new high on Sunday when it took the Thomas Cup title in Bangkok. The Indian side became only the sixth to win the prestigious tournament, often regarded as the sport’s world championships for teams. India defeated 14-time winner Indonesia 3-0 in the final. In the title race, World Championship medalists Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective singles ties, while the doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also won their match. It was truly a memorable performance.
After the win, Prannoy revealed to DailyExpertNews how they had created a Whatsapp group for the Thomas Cup team members. “I created that WhatsApp group. The name was ‘It’s coming home’ and it really came home. That group was very necessary and important. I wanted a group where all the players were in, because there are a lot of things you can’t do with everyone out there. The players were able to discuss things very freely. And that really helped. We had problems and setbacks in between. We lost to Chinese Taipei in the group stage,” said Prannoy.
“Regrouping after that loss was very important. The (WhatsApp) group has helped every player enormously. We could just indicate what was needed.”
Prannoy’s teammate and doubles player Shetty has now shared a screenshot of the group. He revealed that the group was created on April 30, and 14 days later they won the title.
30/04/2022 we created the group. 15/05/2022 we really got it home. Name of the group “It’s coming home TUC”. PS It’s a real SS of our chat! #thomascup pic.twitter.com/Wb8bG3rbcI
— Chirag Shetty (@Shettychirag04) May 17, 2022
promoted
In the final on Sunday, India led 2-0 after Sen defeated Anthony Ginting in the first singles match, then Rankireddy-Shetty defeated Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sukamuljo in doubles.
Srikanth, a former world No. 1, got the gold medal for India and he did just that to give India a 3-0 victory.
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