Badminton's History Makers: The Push To Podium

A glorious cross court smash by Kidambi Srikanth sealed the moment of joy for the blue billion. This was perhaps the most important point in Srikanth's entire career, the win coming at 23-21.

Celebrations erupted at the Impact arena. The entire team danced for joy and on the ringside, the Indian fans bathed in the tri-colour.

Since the semi-final, HS Prannoy had been inviting the Indian fans to come, fill the arena. They listened.

Siyadath, the Indian Badminton coach, who was a part of this history-making campaign says," They came and they came with drums, anticipating the moment".

India won the Thomas Cup for the first time ever, beating Indonesia 3-0 in the final.

HS Prannoy, one of the architects of the win recounts, "To witness something like this, to stand on the podium in Thomas Cup gave me goosebumps. I am sure half of us in the team never believed that this would happen. But it happened. I think when we came here we told ourselves that we could win a medal, but never thought of winning a Gold medal. Still can't believe it"

Prannoy had created a Whatsapp group 'It's coming home' around the time of the Korea Open to get the 10 boys together and discuss their issues. "And it came home. But we had our issues, we had ups and downs. The discussions on the group helped us stay together, understand each other well," Prannoy said, and then chuckled, "I told them that this is why I should be making all the Whatsapp groups."

Aggression and calmness, highs and lows

The Whatsapp group was a way to channelise the energy, the excitement. But the boys inside the cauldron remained calm.

Chirag Shetty did a Sourav Ganguly act after winning the doubles match in the final. He ripped off his t-shirt and threw into the crowd. The 24