Indian Men’s Badminton team created history last day as they defeated 14-time Thomas Cup champions Indonesia 3-0 in their first ever finals. One of the stalwarts of this achievement was former World No.1 star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth. The experienced star shared how this is undoubtedly his biggest win as India became the sixth new member to win the trophy. It is a huge moment for not only Indian badminton but also for Indian sports as a whole.
“I will rate this one of my biggest wins and I am happy that everyone played extremely well. I don’t think this is one individual’s win, it is about all 10 players. Everyone stepped up when it mattered,” Srikanth shared in the press conference virtually from Bangkok.
“It is definitely one of the biggest wins, best in terms of tournaments and one of my best performances,” he further added.
The 29-year-old turned the clock back and played like his former self to beat World No3 Anders Antonsen to give India a very crucial point in the semifinals against Denmark. He was not done yet as he came to the finals oozing with confidence against Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie. Srikanth lost his focus in the second game but he got back his concentration well in time to strike the winning blow that helped India win the Thomas Cup.
Srikanth shares that individual events are totally different than team events. He feels that team events lift people up as none of them want their team to feel that it was because them they lost. “Individual events are always different to team events and we hardly get to play team events and Thomas Cup finals are the biggest team events. So to win such a big event is a really big moment. It will actually take a while before you know what has actually happened,” Srikanth added.
Even star coach and former India player Pullela Gopichand was also very happy as he claimed this win to be greater than the 1983 World Cup win in cricket under Kapil Dev’s leadership. Srikanth sharing more on the team-based event highlighted how the limelight in team events remains on the country itself as it is a collective effort and winning does not highlight one player rather it highlights the entire nation.
“In any major event be it Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Thomas and Uber Cup, or world championships, none of them have prize money. But when you win, in this tournament, this is for the country. After we won, people said India won Thomas Cup, it was not Srikanth or Prannoy, so it itself was a special feeling,” he said.
