India legend Sunil Gavaskar said that he was a huge fan of badminton and he would prefer to watch badminton over cricket any time. He also said that it was his favourite sport and compared the 2022 Thomas cup win by India to the iconic 1983 World Cup win.
“I would play badminton. That’s my favourite sport. You ask me to watch cricket and badminton, I’ll go for badminton any time. It’s just a fabulous sport and I think India is doing so well in recent times. Winning the Thomas Cup a couple of years ago is almost like India winning the World Cup in 83. So there’s a lot of progress and we’ve had great champions. I love watching the sport,” he said in a video shared by Sony Sports on X.
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In recent times, some of the rallies, they go on for a couple of minutes. I saw one which was like a 100 shots. It was a doubles match and doubles are more likely to have these rallies. It’s amazing, their reflexes and everything,” Gavaskar added.
In 2022, India defeated the 14-time champions Indonesia to win the Thomas Cup for the first time. India were off to a perfect start as Lakshya Sen defeated Anthony Ginting by 8-21, 21-17, 21-16 in a thrilling tie. India’s doubles pair Satwik and Chirag defeated Ahsan-Sukamuljo! 18-21, 23-21, 21-19, the most sensational victory of their career, to give India a 2-0 lead. In the third game, Kidambi Srikanth defeated Jonatan Christie 21-15, 23-21 to make it 3-0. They have done it without losing a match in the final.
On Saturday, however, India’s top doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the China Open Super 1000 badminton tournament after suffering a straight-game defeat to Malaysian second seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the semifinals. The Asian Games champions once again found themselves on the losing side against the world No. 2 Malaysian duo, who have proven to be a persistent hurdle in their path. Satwik and Chirag went down 13-21 17-21 to 2022 World champions and two-time Olympic bronze medallists Aaron and Soh.
