India’s unbroken relationship with the BWF World Championships podium in this millennium started with Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in 2011. Twenty eight years after after Prakash Padukone’s bronze in 1983, the unseeded pair brought home another bronze from the London edition, in the women’s doubles. India have not returned empty-handed since.
It is another story that even though the women shuttlers ensured that continuity, the medals that followed belonged to the singles players. PV Sindhu won five, including India’s only gold so far in 2019; Saina Nehwal got two, and one each came from B Sai Praneeth, Srikanth Kidambi and Lakshya Sen. It was not till 2022 that Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy would add another doubles medal to the list.
