NEW DELHI: When the Indian team landed in Bangkok, dressed in pristine whites, they numbered nine. The tenth member, Lakshya Sen, was already in Thailand; but the news about him was not good. He had flown in carrying a stomach bug he caught possibly from something he ate before boarding the flight from Bengaluru.
Ten days later, Lakshya would turn up in India's first rubber of a dream Thomas Cup Final against Indonesia, He got hammered in the first game 8-21 by Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Anthony Ginting. "I thought he would lose." That was Vimal Kumar's thought, sitting inside Bangkok's Impact Arena with the Indian squad.
