Will we see a World No. 1 Indian badminton player in the coming future?

Number of Indian Badminton players have proved their mettle at the world stage in the last few years. From winning the Olympic medal to defeating the 5 time World Champion Lin Dan, Indian players have done it all,but there is only one thing which none of the current Indian Badminton players has achieved. To become the World No. 1.Till now, only one Indian badminton player has achieved this feat and he is none other than the legend Prakash Padukone. Padukone won the All England Badminton Championships,the world’s most prestigious annual badminton competition in 1980.The All England win catapulted Padukone to the number one world badminton ranking, making him the first Indian to achieve this status. Currently there are four Indian players in top 15 of the world rankings and they are all capable of achieving this remarkable feat.Let’s take a look at their past performances and their chances of becoming the World No. 1.

#1 Kidambi Srikanth

Kidambi Srikanth has impressed everyone with his recent performance

Kidambi Srikanth has shown tremendous growth as a player in the last 14-16 months. The year 2014 was an incredible year for this 22-year old Guntur born player. Srikanth, who was ranked 47th in the first week of January 2014 ended the year ranked 4th in the world.

Srikanth, who is currently World No. 5 stunned the two time Olympic and five time World Champion Lin Dan in the finals of China Open Superseries Premier in November,last year and thus became the first Indian male shuttler to win the Superseries Premier title.

In 2015, Srikanth finished up as the runner-up in the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold tournament. Srikanth with a total of 59397 points is behind Chen Long(84111), Jan O Jorgensen(67963), Lee Chong Wei(65831) and Wan Ho Son(62052).

He will next play the Yonex All England Badminton Championships starting from 3rd of March. If Srikanth wins this tournament, he will earn 11,000 points which will improve his ranking by at least two places.

Former World No. 1 Malaysian star Lee Chong Wei is facing a provisional suspension on the charges of doping by the Badminton World Federation. If Srikanth shows consistency in his performance, then he can surely attain the No. 1 spot in the next 5-6 months.

#2 Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal should get some wins against top-ranked Chinese shuttlers

Indian badminton queen and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal is surely one of the top contenders to reach the No. 1 spot in the next few months. Saina has a career best ranking of 2. Saina with a total of 71081 points is holding the third postion in the latest BWF World Rankings. Saina is behind the two Chinese shuttlers, Li Xuerui (84244) and Wang Shixian (77177).

Saina’s record against the reigning Olympic Champion and current World No. 1 Li Xuerui is not very impressive as she has a win-loss record of 2-8 against the 24-year old Chinese. Both Saina and Xuerui will next play the Yonex All England Badminton Championships in March.

So if Saina wants to reduce the points gap between her and Li, she needs to edge past her rival in the coming months.

Saina’s performance against Wang Shixian is pretty decent as she has defeated Wang 6 out of the 11 times. Saina will also face some stiff competition from World No. 4 Ji Hyun Sung and World No. 5 Wang Yihan.

#3 P.V Sindhu

P.V Sindhu has the potential to become the best in the world

19-year old teenage sensation and two time World Championship bronze medalist P.V Sindhu is currently ranked No. 9 in the world. Sindhu, who trains at Hyderabad’s Gopichand Badminton academy and supported by Olympic Gold Quest is surely the future of Indian Badminton.

Though Sindhu failed to win any major tournaments last year, she did manage to reach the semifinals in three of them. Sindhu with a total of 56935 points is 27000 behind World No. 1 Li Xuerui. So if Sindhu wants to become the best in the world, she needs to beat the best in the world.

Sindhu’s record against top shuttlers of the world is quite impressive. Against the World No. 1, she holds the win-loss record of 1-1,4-2 against the World No. 2,0-1 against Saina and 3-1 against the World ranked 4 Korean shuttler Ji Hyun Sung.

The only thing which Sindhu lacks in her game is consistency. But she is just 19, so we can expect that Sindhu will become a lot more consistent, aggressive and confident in her game in the coming years.If she can maintain her consistency, she can surely become India’s as well as world’s best badminton player in the future.

#4 Parupalli Kashyap

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Parupalli Kashyap, who is the only Indian male shuttler to reach the quarterfinals of men’s singles at the Olympics is currently ranked 12th in the latest BWF World rankings.

Kashyap, who reached his career best ranking of 6 in March 2013 also trains at Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. Kashyap started the year 2015 on a positive note as he won the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold tournament in January beating India’s No. 1 and World No. 5 Kidambi Srikanth in the championship match.

Kashyap with a total of 48493 points is around 36,000 points behind the leader. So Kashyap’s first aim would be to enter the top-10 of the world rankings. If Kashyap manages to reach the semifinals or finals of the All England Badminton Championships,he will surely break into the top-10.

To become World No. 1, he needs to perform consistently well in the Superseries and Superseries Premier tournaments for the next one or two years.