India Beat Indonesia 3-0 in the Thomas Cup Final in Bangkok on 15 May 2022 and Won the Men's Team Title for the First Time, Against a Side With 14 Titles

India beat Indonesia 3-0 in the Thomas Cup final in Bangkok on 15 May 2022 and won the men’s team trophy for the first time. The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the Indian government’s press office, describes Indonesia as a 14-time champion, and The Quint’s report says the win made India the sixth country to take the title. A tie is five matches, so three wins settle it, and Lakshya Sen, the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and Kidambi Srikanth won those three.

Stadium Astro names China, Malaysia, Denmark and Japan as the other winners besides the two finalists. The Quint says India’s men had reached the semi-finals in 1952, 1955 and 1979, and Outlook calls the 1979 semi-final India’s previous best. Both Outlook and Badminton Planet describe the Bangkok final as India’s first.

For the sport’s individual side, see tuput’s account of P. V. Sindhu’s two Olympic medals and her 2019 world title. India’s cricket team won the World Cup in 1983, covered in the piece on Kapil Dev and that tournament.

Lakshya Sen takes the opening match

Sen, 20 at the time according to Republic World, opened against Anthony Ginting, an Olympic bronze medallist whom Republic World lists as world No. 5. Badminton Planet ranks Sen ninth.

Ginting won the first game 21-8 with a run of 12 straight points, in about 17 minutes, according to Scroll’s live coverage and The Quint. Sen won the second game 21-17. In the third he trailed 7-11 at the interval, Outlook and Badminton Planet both report, and then won it 21-16, finishing with four straight points. The Badminton Association of India’s media account wrote “Supersen mode on”, Republic World records.

The Sports Minister later said in a PIB release that “Lakshya Sen showed nerves of steel in winning the opening match against Indonesia”.

Satwik and Chirag save four match points

The doubles came second. Rankireddy and Shetty, ranked eighth in the world according to Badminton Planet and The Quint, played Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, and lost the first game 18-21.

In the second game Indonesia reached four match points. India saved all four and won it 23-21, as Outlook, Badminton Planet and Scroll each report. Badminton Planet says the pair then came back from 13-16 and 17-18 down in the third game, which they won 21-19. Scroll and The Quint give the length of the match as an hour and 13 minutes. India led 2-0.

Srikanth closes it in 48 minutes

Srikanth, world No. 11 according to Badminton Planet, played Jonatan Christie, ranked eighth. He won the first game 21-15. The second was close. Badminton Planet reports that Christie led 20-19, which gave him a game point, and Outlook has the game level at 21-21 before Srikanth took the last two points to win 23-21. The Quint and SportsHistori both put the match at 48 minutes.

PIB’s sports ministry release says Srikanth won every time he went on court in the tournament. With the tie won 3-0, the next two matches on the order of play, the doubles of M. R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and a singles for H. S. Prannoy, were not played. Outlook’s report lists both with no result.

Group stage, Malaysia and a five-match semi-final

India finished second in Group C behind Chinese Taipei, LatestLY reports, and went through to the knockout rounds. Badminton Planet notes that Rankireddy and Shetty lost their doubles to Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin in the Chinese Taipei tie.

The Sports Minister’s release lists the knockout run as successive wins over Malaysia, Denmark and Indonesia. The Denmark semi-final, on Friday 13 May according to Badminton Planet, went to a deciding fifth match, and India won it 3-2. Outlook and Badminton Planet give the same scores:

• Sen lost to Viktor Axelsen 13-21 13-21.
• Rankireddy and Shetty beat Kim Astrup and Mathias Christiansen 21-18 21-23 22-20.
• Srikanth beat Anders Antonsen 21-18 12-21 21-15.
• Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost to Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Frederik Sogaard 14-21 13-21.
• Prannoy beat Rasmus Gemke 13-21 21-9 21-12 in the decider, and Outlook says he played it with an ankle injury.

The ministry’s release says Prannoy, like Srikanth, won every time he went on court. At a later meeting with the Prime Minister he said the pressure had been immense in the quarter-final and the semi-final, and that the team’s support helped the squad get through it.

The phone call on the evening of the final

The Prime Minister posted a message on social media that afternoon, which PIB reproduced: “The Indian badminton team has scripted history! The entire nation is elated by India winning the Thomas Cup!” PIB’s release is stamped 4:20 pm on 15 May 2022.

That evening, according to a second PIB release, he spoke to the team by phone. He said sports analysts would have to count the win as India’s finest sporting win. The release says Srikanth told him that after the quarter-final the team’s determination to see it through became very strong. Sen said his father had been at the tournament, and Prannoy said that winning the quarter-final made it clear the team could take on any side. Shetty told the Prime Minister, who had switched to Marathi, that nothing tops becoming world champion, and that too from India. The Prime Minister invited the team and its coaches to his residence.

Support behind the squad

The Sports Ministry announced Rs 1 crore (10 million rupees) for the team that afternoon. PIB called it “an unprecedented move” and quoted the Sports Minister saying the feat “called for a relaxation of rules”. The Quint reports that the president of the Badminton Association of India announced Rs 1 crore for the squad and Rs 20 lakh for the support staff.

The same release lists what the ministry had provided. It had funded a 10-week national camp starting in January and the engagement of Mathias Boe as a coach for the doubles combinations. Over the previous four years, it says, funding of Rs 67.19 crore went to Indian badminton players for training and competition, including the salaries of foreign and Indian coaches. In the past year alone it supported 14 international exposure trips at a cost of Rs 4.50 crore. The release also names Arjun, Kapila, Garaga, Panjala and Priyanshu Rajawat as part of the squad.

The meeting on 22 May 2022

On 22 May 2022 the Prime Minister met the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup teams, and PIB published a long account of it. Srikanth, the team captain, told him that individually everyone was performing well and the job was to bring out their best as a team. The Prime Minister asked Sen about the food poisoning he had during the tournament.

The release quotes the Prime Minister: “after decades, Indian flag has been firmly planted”. It also says he described the result as the end of a seven-decade wait. Prannoy told him the title felt prouder because it came in the 75th year of independence. The Prime Minister thanked Sen for bringing bal mithai, the Almora sweet he had asked for on the phone call.