The duo of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam prevailed over the talented and ace campaigners and they all of a sudden became the talk of the badminton fraternity when their triumph at the Guwahati Nationals marked a turning point in their careers. They became India No. 1 in the rankings of the Badminton Association of India in 2019 and have been consistent performers since then. At the recently held National Games 2022 in Gujarat though they lagged behind a few notches to the Telangana duo of N Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand in the finals but for sure they won the hearts with their majestic game.
We spoke to Ashwini and Shikha exclusively and below are the excerpts:
Q. How did it feel playing for Karnataka and then clinching your maiden title in National Games 2022?
A. Ashwin Bhat: Firstly, we are overjoyed that we won silver medal there, it was our first time that we participated in National games. Secondly, we are glad that Karnataka government bestowed its confidence in me and Shikha as they selected us to represent the state. We are glad that it was added in our bucket list.
Shikha: Playing there was a very good experience and it was a good opportunity to claim. We pay gratitude to the Central Government and SAI (Sports Authority of India) to organise such an event. It’s one of the major events almost meeting the standards of Olympics.
Q. How did you take this game of yours in national games, as a warm up match or a practice match before the major International events like Asian games and Olympics cued for the next year and the year ahead?
A. Shikha: Actually, it was a good start for us. As we have lot more tournaments coming ahead, yes of course it was a good practice match and then performing well and winning silver medal there boosted our confidence manifolds.
Q. The Guwahati triumph of yours as doubles in 2019, you as duo came into limelight and got recognition for a mind-blowing win and performance there, please cherish.
A. Ashwini: Yeah of course we for the very first time got paired up in 2019, we didn’t expect a lot from that tournament because it was a new pairing but it came as a boom in our careers. It really gave us an opportunity to excel in doubles. As we were focussing on our singles game, but this came as a turning point in a good way.
Q. Shikha you were majorly focussing on singles, so do you still want to go back to the same, are there any regrets?
A. Shikha: No, not at all, though I have played singles also at higher levels but my careers turning point happened with the doubles playing so I considered it lucky. But at the same time whatever I play I enjoy. Be it singles or doubles.
Q. How are the preparations going on Asian games and Paris Olympics?
A. Shikha: Going really good, we begin around 8 o’ clock daily with the morning off court training part and it goes on till 10am. Then we have an hour and half break and we do another session which starts at 12 and continues till 1:30pm which is mainly on the current match practice and in the evening we carry on the central partition training along with the alternate days inculcated with the cardio exercises, also involves other physio activities. And then playing with our coach is the most important part of our training where we get to learn the techniques, the strokes, the defence, strategies. We draw learnings and work on them.
Q. So any changes suggested by your coach and staff to make your game more strong, any amendments?
A. Ashwini: Yeah! As we played a very interesting match against a Korean pair, who won the silver in the world championship. So, post match many people appreciated us for our game and the experts suggested us that we should work on our paces and also improvise on our rallies as much as possible.
Q. What is your current ranking in doubles? And after 2019 you both were aiming to become one of the best women doubles pairs in India, so how far have you reached?
A. Shikha: Our current World ranking is 42.
Ashwini: It has been a good journey, I mean there are lot of other women doubles players too like Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly and others too so we have a good competition and yes we have achieved many benchmarks to be one of the best players in doubles.
Q. Who is your inspiration?
A. Apriyani Rahayu, the Badminton player from Indonesia and Kobe Bean Bryant, the basketball player form USA.
Q. How was Gujarat and Gujaratis to you? Did you wear Chaniya Choli there for Dandiya Ras?
A. Ashwini: We enjoyed Garba Dance there. No we didn’t wear the traditional Chaniya Choli but we did wear kurta. We wanted to go with the mass as it was festive season there and Gujaratis looked so beautiful in traditional costumes. Also, we had a major crunch of time so can’t explore much.
Q. Please highlight your immediate goals.
A. Ashwini: So right now we have an Infosys challenge happening in Bangalore, we are here to perform. We are aiming to win the title here. And next we have the target to enter into the ranking of World no. 30. So, then it will be a good moral boost for us. And afterwards, the trials of Olympics are scheduled in the month of March next year. We are just putting all our hard and smart work to qualify for the Paris Olympics. Keeping fingers crossed.