Badminton: How Satwik-Chirag’s success is bringing about a ‘tall’ revolution in Indian men’s doubles

Bhavya Chhabra is a towering 6-foot-3 from Vaishali in Ghaziabad, and spent most of June working on his agility under the strength and conditioning (S&C) programme at Reliance Foundations’s Mumbai facility to improve his bends and squats low at the net. He is among a bunch of 8-10 tall youngsters, scouted seven years ago at the Noida facility. Chhabra and the other tall shuttlers in his batch have been encouraged to follow the template set by former World No.1 Shetty who, while being upwards of 6 feet, has a world-class net-game and has evolved into a versatile player.

Chhabra’s partner Param Choudhary, also from Ghaziabad and north of 6 feet, has styled his game on Rankireddy’s, whose deceptive drops and low lifts cheekily feign a smash.

The third in this tall group is C Lalramsanga, a Mizoram talent selected for mixed doubles. He is also training to master front-court skills, while Saharanpur shuttler Divyam Arora, who pairs with Arsh Mohammad, is 189 cm (6’1 1/2”) and recently recorded a monster 63 cm jump at the Reliance facility, comparable to what the best Malaysians, known for their leaps.

With Shetty as his idol, Arora is bursting his lungs, imbibing the creativity and agility needed to occupy the front court.

They were all scouted out by Gopichand and his former lieutenant Mohd Siyadatullah, and are now trained at the National Centre in Guwahati by Russian 2016 All England doubles champion Ivan Sozonov, who understands a fair bit about tall agility and the European style of play, and can guide them to the next level.

Many combinations

When the Noida academy was turned into an isolation centre in Covid times, the shuttlers moved to Hyderabad where many pairings were rejigged and new combinations tried out, which means that now there’s a crop of carefully-curated tall doubles shuttlers. Shetty’s game encouraged them to be versatile and step forward for the net role. So, they all boast of a big smash, but can also handle eyeball confrontations of fast drives at the net.

Gopichand explains the thinking from back when they were in the 10-11 year range. “Obviously, you don’t know how tall they will shoot up. But they hit hard because they are tall, and the power element can’t be stressed enough in international badminton. Stroke-wise for the net game in the front court, we stressed they should learn all skills early. Strength and speed can be worked on. Satwik and Chirag were massive role models for them,” he says, adding that a further 8-10 tall shuttlers are developing in Guwahati and Hyderabad.

However, this is a miniscule number given India’s size, and the national coach reckons all players, tall or small, will be encouraged to become all-rounders in rotation, and adapt to the front court.

“Their grassroot coaches deserve credit for starting skills and keeping an open mind on not just choice of singles and doubles but front court and back court as well,” he says.

SatChi’s legacy

Still, for a country that barely qualified for the 2016 Olympics in men’s doubles with a taller Sumeeth Reddy playing front court with Manu Attri, there is some progress.

Chhabra says Chirag’s game style inspired him but playing on the front court has come with its challenges.

“Satwik and Chirag set up the legacy and gave us belief and a headstart, and my favourite players growing up were Chirag and Indonesian legend Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo,” he says. “So when coaches at Hyderabad said I should try front court, since I control the shuttle well, I felt ready because Chirag has succeeded there.”

The challenges are plenty, though Shetty made them look easy.

“You have to learn to move quickly, bend, play strokes perfectly and have the agility to shift left and right which comes naturally to smaller players. My S&C trainer Arjun Jain is helping me overcome the height disadvantages,” Chhabra said.

Arora, of the 63cm jump fame while grazing 6’2”, says Shetty was a big reason he picked doubles.

“I think I’m a natural doubles player. I love it, and Chirag is my idol. I have good smashes from the back but also a good sense of the front court. I’m still far from perfect but I take bending as a challenge,” Arora says.

He has built up his massive jump after a back surgery, and says Sozonov is teaching him how to think creatively as a front-court artist.For Choudhary, watching the Indonesian former World No.1s, dubbed Minions – Kevin and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon – addictively on loop, cured him of all singles ambitions.

“The Minions changed men’s doubles skill- and speed-wise. They were everyone’s idols but we are not built like them. We are taller. We have Satwik in India, who plays in a way so that you don’t take pressure on the body. He starts with a big smash action and fools with drops and low lifts. Now we are also learning the European style through Sozonov, with tall and flat lifts,” he says.

Like India’s finest, Satwik-Chirag, this next batch is scouted out for their tall frames, but taught to hunker down and play flat, before leaping to explode.