Kidambi Srikanth and Co. script history as India men’s badminton team reach first-ever Asian Games final

The Indian men’s badminton team scripted history at the Asian Games, assuring themselves of a silver medal with a 3-2 win over South Korea in the semifinal. This is the first time an Indian Badminton team has reached the final of the Asian Games.

India’s last team medal in men's badminton at the Asian Games came 37 years ago, when the Indian team comprised of Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi, managed to win Bronze in Seoul in 1986.

In fact, this is only the second time India are assured of a silver medal in badminton at the Asian Games. The only other silver India had won previously came at Jakarta 2018, where PV Sindhi finished as the runner-up in the women’s singles event.

Asian Games 2023 India Schedule Oct 1: Medal events - Badminton, Golf, Athletics, Shooting, Boxing timings

It was a gruelling encounter for both India and South Korea, which went right down to the wire. While HS Prannoy won his men’s singles matchup to give India the lead, the World No. 3 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost their match. With scores at 1-1, Lakshya Sen gave India the lead with a straightforward victory. But it was all square once again when the men’s doubles team of Dhruv Kapila and Arjun Ramachandran lost in straight games.

When former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth lost the first game of his deciding match against World No. 163 Geonyeop Cho, India were staring down the barrel, but Srikanth turned the tide in India’s favour in the second game.

Even as Cho put up a fierce fight, the Indian shuttler showed great character to win the match to set up a grand finale with hosts China on Sunday.

Also read: Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee beat World No. 2 Chinese pair, bronze assured in Table Tennis