Sunil Gavaskar Drops Bombshell: ‘I’d Watch Badminton Over Cricket Anytime – It’s My Favourite Sport!’ | Cricket

FILE – Sunil Gavaskar says he will prefer to watch badminton over cricket anytime. Photo: PTI

Legendary cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar said badminton is his favourite sport, and he would rather watch badminton instead of cricket if given a choice between the two. He also equated the Indian men’s badminton team’s 2022 Thomas Cup win to the seminal moment of the Indian cricket – the 1983 World Cup victory. In the 2022 Thomas Cup, India defeated the mighty Indonesia, winners of 14 titles, in the final. Lakshya Sen laid the stage for a historic win, with the youngster taking down Anthony Ginting 8-21, 21-17, 21-16 in a thrilling opening match of the tie. India’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then put up a sensational performance, defeating Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 18-21, 23-21, 21-19 to give India a 2-0 lead. Former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth then stood out and stunned Jonatan Christie in straight games (21-15, 23-21) to clinch a thrilling 3-0 win and script history as India won the Thomas Cup for the first time.

“I would play badminton. That’s my favourite sport. You ask me to watch cricket and badminton, I’ll go for badminton any time. It’s just a fabulous sport and I think India is doing so well in recent times. Winning the Thomas Cup a couple of years ago is almost like India winning the World Cup in ’83. So there’s a lot of progress and we’ve had great champions. I love watching the sport,” Gavaskar said in a video shared by Sony Sports on X.

Gavaskar is particularly fond of the rallies that test players’ endurance. “In recent times, some of the rallies, they go on for a couple of minutes. I saw one which was like 100 shots. It was a doubles match and doubles are more likely to have these rallies. It’s amazing, their reflexes and everything,” Gavaskar added.

Badminton is one of India’s most successful Olympic sports, with the country winning three Olympic medals in a row – in the 2012, 2016, and 2021 Games. While Saina Nehwal first showed the way, PV Sindhu followed her by claiming a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The two women’s singles players also won multiple World Championships medals — Saina (silver and bronze) and Sindhu, who became the champion in 2019, also won four other medals. This is apart from the multiple Super Series and BWF World Tour titles won by Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth, and Satwik-Chirag.

In the 2022 Asian Games, India’s history-making men’s doubles combo of Satwik and Chirag, who have already won nine World Tour titles, clinched the country’s first-ever gold medal in badminton at the Asian Games.

India’s performance in recent times, however, has not been promising. Besides a title by Ayush Shetty at the US Open Super 300, India failed to deliver in major titles. Most recently, former World No. 1 Satwik-Chirag fell in the semifinal of the China Open Super 1000 in straight games against Malaysian second seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. This was the Indians’ 11th defeat to the Malaysians in 14 outings. The Indian duo have won only three times.

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