CWG 2022 | Doubles coach Mathias Boe wants Indian team to focus on individual events
The Indian players should use their 'rage' after losing to Malaysia in the mixed team final to 'shoot some bullets' in the independent badminton events at the Commonwealth Games, as per Mathias Boe. India was defeated 1-3 by Malaysia, the five-time champs, and were unable to defend their title.
“I don't think any of us would be satisfied with winning only silver. We had come to win the team gold, but that did not happen. So now all depends on the individual competitions. Hopefully, it should bring a little more anger out when they start the individual events," Boe told reporters.
"It is always difficult to come from a win and then start over because there the chances of failure are higher. We now come from a defeat, so my players can be thirsty for more and ready to take the last step on the podium. We need to digest this, reload, recharge and then get ready to shoot some bullets when we restart in the next few days."
P V Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, was the sole winner in the final after Kidambi Srikanth, the former world no. 1, lost to lower-ranked Ng Yong Tze in the second singles in three games after Kidambi Srikanth was chosen over an in-form Lakshya Sen.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who won silver at the Commonwealth Games, and Chirag Shetty, who won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, were unable to beat them. "We have a solid group of 10 guys who are all top-notch.
"Srikanth is a tremendous men's singles player, Satwik/Chirag are good men's doubles pair and Treesa and Gayatri are really good ladies doubles players," the 42-year-old Boe said.
"I trust all my players in the team. So, the team that was selected today, we feel was the strongest. I feel, we didn't play to our best but in Malaysia, they also performed well." Men's doubles silver medalist Boe from the London Olympics remarked the Malaysian team had luck on their side and was more evenly matched.
"Luck favours the brave. It could have also gone our way -- at 18-15 in men's doubles, they played some good points and we made a few mistakes. Maybe, (winning) the first set would have changed the momentum a little bit in the team".
"Srikanth could also have won the first set, and then one each in the second. These small things went Malaysia's way today. We need to go back to the team and see if we can change a few things right now, and with what I have seen, it is not much. It's just one of these days when the small margin has not gone to our side. Sadly, it happened."
There were high hopes for the mixed squad, who were seen as favourites before the competition, after India's historic Thomas Cup victory. However, Boe said: "Today, we have five relatively open matches. We could see that everyone expected Sindhu to win and that was also difficult for her.
" So, if it was just as easy as that, and we can say that we are favourites, this match we are going to win and not favourites in this one, we are going to lose, then there is no point in playing a tournament."
