The stuff of champions!

It is said that team work makes the dream work And thatrsquos exactly what Indiarsquos national badminton head coach Pullela Gopichand attributes the epic Thomas Cup win by the menrsquos team in Bangkok toldquoThis team not only competed hard but also helped each other along the way and thatrsquos what makes this win so specialrdquo says Gopichand of Indiarsquos historic gold medal feat in the world team event beating 14time champions Indonesia 30 in the final on SundayThe former AllEngland champion goes on to highlight the individual effort put in by the members of Indiarsquos champion badminton teamOn Lakshya SenThe illness he was down with food poisoning on arrival in Bangkok was a problem but Lakshya overcome it on time In his initial matches he was chasing the shuttle quite a bit and you could see that he was struggling on court particularly in the corners In the final too he went a game down and many would have thought that it will be tough to make a comeback against a player like Anthony Ginting but he fought back well and made every point count Lakshya is a wellknown player now and opponents do tend to read him so that cannot be easy to deal with But he showed his true character and grit in the final to give India a crucial 10 leadOn Kidambi SrikanthSrikanth has been in some good form lately He performed excellently winning all his matches The way he troubled Jonatan Christie in the final was very impressive He put a lot of pressure on Christie who is the reigning Asian Games gold medallist Srikanth has been working very hard on his game and his good form is proof of the effort he has put into his training He has beaten some top names in the recent past including Denmarkrsquos Anders Antonsen World No3 I believe Srikanth can reclaim that World No1 ranking againOn Satwiksairaj Rankireddy amp Chirag ShettyWhile itrsquos great that we have three strong singles players in the menrsquos team itrsquos even better to have such a fine doubles pair in Satwik and Chirag Both are physically strong players and fast too They displayed their strength well on court with some hard smashes particularly Satwik To save four match points in that second game in the final was wonderful Theyrsquove been playing smartly and aggressively which is great I really hope they build on this and keep playing together for long as that could only mean great news for Indian badmintonOn HS PrannoyPrannoy had some issues with his breathing and picked up a foot injury To still play so well is creditable Whenever a doubt creeps in due to injury or any other factor itrsquos tough to get over it His foot would have been troubling him but he fought on and did well to win his quarterfinal and semifinal ties Both were crucial wins considering India won them by a close 32 scoreline