Srikanth has immense capability in all-round game: Gopichand

World No. 3 Srikanth Kidambi has achieved the massive feats in 2017, which include reaching finals of super series events and the triumph of four titles and credits for his power revelation definitely goes to Pullela Gopichand, the man behind strong Indian badminton contingent in the top 25 of the BWF rankings.

As quoted by TOI, on asking about his colossal victories in 2017, Srikanth told that his main priority was to be fit and to get back on court. “The moment I got to 100% fit and returned to the court, that's when I started to think about winning tournaments and doing well in Superseries. Luckily, with the help of all my coaches and support staff at the academy, I was able to mark victories.”

Srikanth feels that top 25 shuttlers are playing extremely well on the international circuit and equally tough to play against.

For Gopichand, as 2018 has the busiest calendar for the players, he wants to make sure that Srikanth does well at the major tournaments that matters the most. He said, “It's very important for me that India does well in the four important tournaments of the year, which for me are the All-England Championship, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and the Asian Games. At the end of the day, these are tournaments were performances really matter.”

Talking about Lin Dan’s comment on the Srikanth as the complete player, Gopi said, “I think it's great to have someone of the calibre of Lin Dan comment the way he did, so it just goes to show the immense capability and strengths that Srikanth has in his all-round game. It's definitely true, what Lin Dan has said. Yet, Srikanth has to improve more and has to adapt to a more strength and fitness-oriented rally.”

In the initial days of his career, Srikanth opted doubles as his game, while, his brother Nandagopal Kidambi used to play singles. The tables had turned around when Gopichand identified the true ability of the players and swapped the game between the brothers. Today, Srikanth is the top singles shuttler in the country and Nandagopal marked himself as the tough doubles shuttler.

Srikanth gratifying his coach Gopi, he said, “He's the best I have trained under, for sure. He's been important for Indian badminton, because if he had not started coaching, I don't think Indian badminton would have come this far. All the credit goes to him, and he's the most important person in Indian badminton.”

Explaining about how the badminton system has been throughout the past few years, Gopichand said, “I think the great part of the last few years has been the success we've got. The unfortunate part in the last few years is the fact that we've not really been able to build a system. High performance, grooming players, long-term vision, systematic development of an ecosystem for sport is something which we unfortunately haven't developed. There's a lot more work that has to be done. More importantly, we need a lot more maturity and understanding of the problem and solving it. We as a nation need to start looking at it to get sustainable results.”

Gopichand elucidated that if we look the sport differently in our country, then for sure the long-term results can be sustained.