Prarthana Hazarika
New Delhi, Aug 24: India may have finished the home BWF World Championships with just one medal, but the bronze won by Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand has offered a major reason for optimism.
The young women’s doubles pair produced fearless, high-quality badminton, combining energy, skills and understanding to light up a packed Indira Gandhi Stadium.
Former India international shuttler Ajit Wijetileke, speaking exclusively to Meghalaya Sports, believes the pair can break into the world’s top three to five if they continue to improve, mature and remain fit.
The campaign also saw PV Sindhu fight hard against Wang Zhi Yi before narrowly missing another medal opportunity, while Ayush Shetty showed his ability to beat the best before losing to Alwi Farhan.
Wijetileke sees Ayush as a definite future medal hope in men’s singles, alongside Lakshya Sen. But he believes Lakshya must rediscover his sharpness, composure and motivation after a below-par outing at a home World Championships.
For Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, he believes confidence, full match fitness and sufficient match play will be key to returning to the medal podium.
The bigger concern, however, is India’s depth.
“India has become a strong enough badminton nation to expect medals at World Championships,” Wijetileke said, while pointing out that India still has fewer genuine medal contenders across disciplines than the leading badminton nations.
France’s breakthrough at these championships — with Alex Lanier becoming the men’s singles world champion and France also winning the mixed doubles title — underlines how quickly a nation can build itself into a major badminton force.
India has the numbers, but now needs to convert that vast player base into more world-class competitors.
Wijetileke sees strong potential in the women’s singles pipeline, with Unnati Hooda, Tanvi Sharma, Ashmita Chaliha, Malvika Bansod, Rakshitha Sree, Isarani Baruah, Anmol Kharb, Devika Sihag, Tanvi Patri and Shriyanshi Valishetty among those who could develop into top-10 and medal contenders.
The message from New Delhi is clear: India’s badminton future is promising — but the next step is building depth, quality and a larger pool of players capable of winning medals consistently at the highest level.
Treesa-Gayatri may have delivered India’s only medal this time.
But they may also have given the country a glimpse of what comes next.
