There were myriad technical shortcomings of hers that Isharani Baruah candidly reflected on after being shot out 21-12, 21-10 by Olympic champion Chen Yufei playing the Uber Cup group match. The pace of the rallies she could cope with, but Yufei’s lengths, her drops, variations, and all strokes going to the backcourt, mightily awed the 20-year-old. “And it was not comfortable. It was tough. I have to improve my strokes and variations,” she would state.
Then wide-eyed, guilelessly she would get to the crux of the only thing she could control: “..and she doesn’t make silly mistakes like me.” It was taking responsibility after being fielded as the No 1 singles player and being as realistic as someone thrown into the deep end could be.
India’s very young squad were blanked 5-0 by China, who fielded all seven players who are in the Top 8 of the world rankings. Baruah is No 83, Anmol Kharb is No 258 and Tanvi Sharma is No 589. Tanvi was also the youngest at the Uber Cup, at age 15. India’s doubles pairings Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra are No 67, and Simran Singhi and Ritika Thakker are No 64. As second strings go, just making the Uber Cup quarterfinals ought to be creditable, but each of the players had gratitude for this chance while rushing to add, “We could have done better.”
The scores were pretty accurate in pointing to the gulf in class. Essentially, strolls in the park for all the Chinese. Additionally, the rug pulled from under Anmol Kharb’s feet when her side stretch chasing down a flank shuttle, gave her a nasty ankle sprain and left her in tears on the court. For India’s most exciting talent from the Asian team triumph, it was heartbreaking.
Playing Han Yue, the early scratchy points were ominous when she twice broke her strings amidst laboured movements. Trailing 21-9 4-1, the ankle rolled and she had to leave sobbing. Tough lessons of a public injury at 17, after being schooled by a top Chinese. Indians accustomed to watching Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu beating the Chinese will have to recalibrate their expectations and be patient with the new bunch.
Tanvi Sharma, 15, playing on the big stage, was all over the place in her opening set against Wang Zhi Yi which she lost 21-7. Her net play is immediately striking, as is the delicious audacity to keep going for the lines even if she sprayed a dozen wide in unforced errors. She wouldn’t grant skeptics enough time to scribble a line writing her off though. In the second, Tanvi continued to remain adventurous at the net, and lifted the curtains on a few more strokes, snapping at Wang’s heels till 15-14. They aren’t as well-built as Sindhu, but all of Isharani, Anmol and Tanvi have inherited the Indian badminton gene to not be afraid of the Chinese.
Baruah’s self-appraisal was honest, but nowhere daunted by having to do this going head-to-head business against the Chinese day in and day out. The highly rated player has a nice collection of drops and check-shots to the forecourt. She premeditates a tad too much and can stay rooted too long, and has only a modest read on the opponent’s game. She slumped her shoulders too and grimaced like idol Akane Yamaguchi, as Yufei began to run away with the match. But, some of her overhead deception is wickedly effective, and she can construct a mean point. Strength and stamina are nowhere top tier, but she has a good head on her shoulders.
“I’m disappointed with my game because I made too many errors. I thought I was playing well with her but unfortunately, it was an easy win for her. It’s OK. I ll work hard next time. Some points when I was rallying, I was getting a chance and hitting well. But as I said, I made too many 1-2 strokes mistakes. If I would have played longer rally, I would’ve done better,” she would explain.
Most hearteningly, she wasn’t scarred by the scoreline. “I was really excited to play with Chen Yufei. It was a good experience to play Olympic gold medallist. If I get a chance to play her again, I’ll definitely do well next time,” she assured.
For the doubles pairings, battling the current world’s best Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan and the dangerously brilliant future of world badminton in Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, the lessons were straightforward. Shruti Mishra would say, “Main thing was court was really fast. We were not able to lift the shuttle properly. Drift was there. But main problem was defense.” Yet, they have learned a useful trick from Satwik-Chirag about embracing the big occasion. “Obviously crowd was amazing. Doesn’t matter they were cheering for them. We were also getting motivated,” Priya would happily say.
For Simran and Ritika, who went down 21-9, 21-10, losing steam pretty fast, a few fundamentals were burnished as points to work on in the future. “We have to be consistent because there are no easy points at this level. We need to get into big rallies, have to be fit for that. We should be more patient. Should get used to conditions with one side very fast, one very slow. We should know how to control the shuttle.”
The 5-0 thrashing wasn’t entirely unexpected. But the spotlight will remain brightly and at times abrasively on this bunch as they stutter, slip, resurface, get swatted, snatch a few points defiantly, and generally pursue success, knowing it can get as tough as a 5-0 drubbing by China, before the wins fetch up.
