Thomas Cup bronze medal no mean feat, but questions remain over India’s next-gen talent pipeline

After no medals in the first 30 editions of Thomas Cup, India has twice finished on the podium in the last four years. The collection, which started with a historic gold from Bangkok 2022, now also features a bronze won between April 24 and May 3 in Horsens, Denmark.

Placed in Group A with defending champion China, Canada and Australia, qualifying for the quarterfinals wasn’t a difficult task for India as it beat the latter two 4-1 and 5-0. Against China, in the battle to decide the group topper, the team narrowly lost 2-3.

For the knockout stage, India was drawn to face Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals. Lakshya Sen provided the ideal start as he saved two match points in his thrilling 18-21, 22-20, 21-17 triumph over World No. 6 Chou Tien Chen. The premier doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty overcame a stiff challenge from Hsian Chieh Chiu and Wang Chi-lin for a 23-21, 19-21, 21-12 victory. While All England Open champion and World No. 10 Lin Chun-yi did have some physical limitations, it required tournament debutant Ayush Shetty to produce his best performance of the tournament for a 21-16, 21-17 win, clinching the tie 3-0 for India.

Winning a Thomas Cup medal is no mean feat. It requires squad depth – multiple high-quality options for singles and at least one solid doubles duo if not two.

India’s squad retained the core from the team that stunned 14-time champion Indonesia in the final four years ago – Lakshya, Kidambi Srikanth, H.S. Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag.

A rising star in World No. 18 Ayush and an improving doubles specialist in Hariharan Amsakarunan brought freshness and new energy.

There were hopes of emulating the 2022 miracle.

However, in the semifinals, India faced a high-spirited French side who had earlier upset Indonesia 4-1 in their final group match and Japan 3-0 in the quarterfinals.

Lakshya Sen missed the semifinal against France due to a swollen elbow.
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A few hours before the contest, India suffered a huge blow with World No. 11 Lakshya being ruled out of the match due to a swollen elbow, the result of multiple dives during his battle with Chou.

The French team’s combination also took Satwik-Chirag out of the picture. With Popov brothers – Christo and Toma Junior, its No. 1 and No. 3 singles player – also forming its top doubles pair, the match order had to be determined in a manner which allowed the two enough time to rest and recover between matches. Therefore, the sprightly Satwik-Chirag duo could only be in action if the tie went the distance.

It never reached that stage as France swept aside India with a 3-0 scoreline. World No. 4 Christo outplayed Ayush, India’s best singles player in Lakshya’s absence, 11-21, 9-21. World No. 10 Alex Lanier took down Srikanth 21-16, 21-18 and Toma Junior wrapped up the match with a 21-19, 21-16 victory over Prannoy.

Srikanth and Prannoy were selected in the squad as they are India’s third and fourth best singles players in the BWF Rankings. But both are also aged 33. It leads to the obvious question related to the growth of young shuttlers in the country. What happened to someone like Priyanshu Rajawat who was part of the 2022 Thomas Cup squad and went on to win a Super 300 title in 2023? Does the country not have enough bench strength? Are there enough top-quality coaches to train the future stars?

Even in doubles, Indian duos other than Satwik-Chirag are yet to step up to the next level.

The situation is not too different for the women’s team, which failed to progress to the quarterfinals after losses to China and Denmark in the group stage. P.V. Sindhu is still expected to do the heavy lifting while the youngsters get used to the highest level of professional badminton.

With Asian Games set to take place later this year, these are some of the issues the Badminton Association of India will have to address. The work somewhat seems to have begun already as on April 29, the federation released an advertisement looking for “highly qualified and experienced Indian coaches” to train the Indian players at three major centres in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Guwahati.

Published on May 04, 2026