Hopping from Vizag to Khammam to Guntur,finally in Hyderabad and spanning a decade,newly crowned badminton mens singles national champion K Srikanth has tinkered and tweaked with one particular stroke in shuttle the half-smash.
The shot that launched P Gopichand into the orbits of Indias all-time greats with his All England win in 2001 (incidentally the year Srikanth started playing),arrived with the youngsters quiver full of strokes in Hyderabad,circa 2010. This was after his first-coach Sudhakar Reddy had exhausted his entire knowledge and poured it into his skillful but laid-back student who followed him to remote SAI outposts in Andhra. At the Nationals in Delhi last week,Srikanth unleashed at least half a dozen variations of the same half-smash while picking 10 straight crosscourt winners against RMV Gurusaidutt on way to claiming the title.
Reddys wards are taught the half-smash the way kindergarten tots learn to recite ABC,but under Gopi,Srikanths half-smash is acquiring both mystery and might as the shuttler has laced it with power and speed nuances in long rallies. It is not unusual for Srikanth to send the shuttle down to three different spots (half-smashes are steeper than the flatter regulation variety) within a rally with only the minutest of changes to his action.
What also sets Srikanth apart from most of his contemporaries is his liberal dipping into his doubles shots armoury,given he was a proficient doubles player at the junior level. So,when dragged into playing drives in rallies,Srikanth is hardly ever troubled,and neither is he wary of aggression. While his fitness has gone up many notches and hes shot up to 61 from the time he was 55 when he picked the basics of the half-smash technique,Srikanth looks unstoppable,except against Sai Praneeth,another technically nuanced shuttler. The deceptive deviant of badmintons most explosive shot,the smash,might well push K Srikanth and his unorthodox strokes into the elusive Top 5 of mens singles in the future.
Shivani is a Sr. Assistant Editor,based in Mumbai.
shivani.naik@expressindia.com
