Indian doubles star MR Arjun feels that the loss against Chinese Taipei spurred the team together to win the Thomas Cup

The Indian Men’s Badminton team scripted history a couple of days ago as they won their first-ever Thomas Cup against record champion Indonesia with a 3-0 scoreline in the finals. While it will take a lot of time for the fact to settle among Indian fans and fans worldwide, there were several protagonists in the story and one of them was MR Arjun who plays Doubles with partner Dhruv Kapila.

In a recent interview with Indian Express, Arjun shared that nothing was pre-planned for the finals as they took one game at a time. Wins from Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and finally the killer blow from Srikanth Kidambi helped India script history in their first-ever finals at the Thomas Cup in Bangkok as they defeated Indonesia with a clean sweep in the first three games.

However, the journey to the finals was not a bed of roses as the Indian team lost ot Chinese Taipei in their group match which according to Arjun dented their confidence a little. “As the team suffered a deficit in the group match, many of us took it personally,” Arjun said of the 3-2 loss in an interview with Indianexpress.

But the 25-year-old shuttler feels that the loss ignited the fire in them to go out there and prove the world that this team can do things that hardly people can imagine. “For our team, that loss was monumental, because we realised, we were in this together. It is not often we get to play at a team event. But, the entire squad was there for each other, constantly,” he added.

MR Arjun added how they made sure to celebrate aloof the wins especially the ones when they reached the semifinals and assured India a medal in the event. “Thereafter, we made sure to celebrate all our victories. Especially after reaching the semi-finals where we were assured of a medal. Nothing else mattered to us when we ran on to the court, dancing on the court, media room and chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” Arjun reminisced.

The Indian team needed HS Prannoy to win back to back two deciders against Malaysia and Denmark. He showed tremendous mental strength to deliver both times. Similarly, Satwik-Chirag also delivered when it was needed as they defeated Kevin Sukamuljo and Mohammed Ahsan in the finals to give India the edge with Srikanth Kidambi turning back the clock and defeating some top players like Anders Antonsen in the semifinals and Jonatan Christie in the finals.