India men clinch first-ever team silver in badminton

The silver medal-winning Indian men’s badminton team. PIC/AFP

Injured HS Prannoy's absence hurt India as they went down fighting 2-3 against badminton powerhouse China to sign off with their first-ever silver medal in the men's team championships at the Asian Games here on Sunday.

After World No. 7 Prannoy was ruled out due to a back injury, Lakshya Sen produced a gutsy show in the first singles with a 22-20, 14-21, 21-18 win over World No. 6 Shi Yuqi.

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World No. 3 doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then bossed over World No 2. Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-15, 21-18 to put India 2-0 ahead.

So, it was once again left to K Srikanth to carry the team on his shoulders. The former World No. 1 couldn't go the distance as China fought back to make it 1-2 after Srikanth went down 22-24, 9-21 against All England champion Li Shifeng.

Scratch pair of Dhruv Kapila and Sai Pratheek Krishna Prasad then lost 6-21, 15-21 to World No. 8 Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi, while Prannoy's replacement Mithun Manjunath, ranked 53, went down 12-21, 4-21 against World No. 20 Weng Hong Yang in the third singles as India finished second best.