Badminton Asia Team updates: Rakshitha’s blistering game in vain as India lose 0-3 to China; No Lakshya, Satwik for Korean tie, Ayush on MS1 duty

Playing the crucial third match of a tie where India are on the brink of failing their title defense, 0-2 down, Rakshitha showed good spirit to push the pace, and nick a set in a tough tie when Tanvi Sharma and Treesa-Gayatri had gone down in straight sets. She trailed 11-17 in the decider when she made up the deficit to within a point at 16-17 upping her attacking ante, but Xu was clever to simply drag out rallies with steady badminton and force and error.

In the end Rakshitha couldn’t close out, despite diving around and keeping up in the rallies because Xu drove her into awkward retrieving situations hogging the initiative. The discipline on strokes, like a backhand short swat wasn’t quite there, though she was striking the shuttle high and early. And those errors combined with her lapsing into Groundhog day retrieves, finally gave China the 3-0 win.

Treesa-Gayatri will rue momentum-loss

A shuttle she left on the backline in Sindhu-sque fashion at 13-10 will haunt Gayatri Gopichand for a few hours if not days at least. Facing decorated Chinese doubles shuttler Jia Yi Fan pairing with Zhang Shu Xian for the Asian Team championship, Indians had been going solid in the second set with a three points cushion, before the Indian let one drop at the back. It cost the team dearly, as the Chinese top doubles pair claimed the next 5 points and flipped the momentum to go 2-0 up in the quarters.

Treesa-Gayatri had done well to go level from 10-16 down in the first set, but couldn’t close out the opener. They had their chances again in the second, but Jia – considered a modern day Chinese doubles legend – was always full of tricks. She was repeatedly stumped by both Gayatri and Treesa managing net shots that went diagonal and dropped delightfully close to the net, as well as going for the lines. But in the end, Indians couldn’t handle the barrage that the Chinese unleashed.

Rakshitha Sree Ramraj needs to beat Xu Wen Jing to keep India alive.

Tanvi outplayed

Earlier, India started Friday glumly as Tanvi Sharma began the quarters, going down 21-9, 21-9 to World No 10 Gao Fangjie. It was always going to be a tall task for the young World Juniors runners-up, ranked No 42 in seniors.

But she is fast discovering that not only does topflight badminton need excellent strokes – which she is in possession of – but most Indian shuttlers trying to break through have fallen at the stamina challenge that requires you to play opponents of a fairly high level for 5 straight days with the jeopardy rising with every passing day. Week in, week out.

Playing China’s second string, is as is a severely intimidating prospect for those new on this level, but Fangjie turned on the pace or made Tanvi look slower from the word go. Clearly exhausted from two days of leading India’s WS1 duties, where she beat higher ranked Busanan Ongbamrungphan, Tanvi could raise her levels at any point in the match, after trailing 0-3 in both, and watched India go 0-1 down in the tie.

When India won the title, Ashmita Chaliha and Anmol Kharb besides the dependable Treesa-Gayatri had shored up India despite the WS1 loss, and India will need an encore with Rakshitha Ramraj and Surya Charishma.

India’s is a development squad with last minute withdrawal of PV Sindhu and missing on World No 24 Unnati Hooda, but Tanvi needs to address her endurance deficits that cost her games as the week goes deep, even beyond this team event.

No Lakshya, Satwik playing

World No 25 Ayush Shetty will lead India’s charge in men’s again, lining up as MS1, after Lakshya Sen continued to not play after the Japan tie and loss to Loh Kean Yew in the Singapore faceoff.

It is yet unclear if it was a precautionary call against aggravating an injury, or a simple matchup selection, where Ayush takes on Yoo Tae Bin. Koreans are notoriously over-achieving at team events, playing better than what their rankings suggest, and Tae Bin might need a bit of firepower to get thrown at him. Ayush had beaten Kenta Nishimoto on Thursday, but like Tanvi his fitness on back to back days will be tested.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy is also not penned in to play. So Hariharan Amsakarunan will pair with Chirag Shetty. Kidambi Srikanth is scribbled in for MS2 to play Choi Ji Hoon while Pruthvi Krishnan – Sai Pratheek resume their partnership for MS2. Tharun Mannepalli is fielded for MS3 against Cho Hyeon Woo, after HS Prannoy wasn’t very effective against Japan.

Much will depend on how Srikanth and Chirag respond to the absence of key teammates. Though Ayush Shetty will need to give India the early boost.