Trust, have fun: Satwik and Chirag head to Asian Games with confidence and clarity

The dance was not planned.

Satwiksiraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had just won their first China Masters title on Sunday, coming off a match where they defeated He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu in Shenzhen, and a familiar celebration ensued. Satwik danced. The pair got drenched at that point.

“It’s happening right now,” Satwik said. “It’s kind of a tradition for us. We just want to keep that tradition going.”

Perhaps this is also how Satwik and Chirag would like to approach the Asian Games. Without thinking. Without bearing the weight of what is expected of them. Without every match turning into a referendum on whether the defending champions are good enough to defend their crown.

Three years after winning gold in Hangzhou, the pair will arrive at the Asian Games in Nagoya with a title behind them and, most importantly, a little more clarity.

“We want to go there and have as much fun as we normally do on the badminton court,” Chirag said. “If we can do that, I think we’ll be able to go deep into the tournament. That’s the only thing we want to do is not think too much about the results.” Courtesy: Badminton Photo

It sounds simple. For a pair who have spent many of the past few years dealing with the injuries, interruptions and expectations that come with being India’s premier men’s doubles team, it has taken some work to arrive at this simplicity.

Their coach Tan Kim Her saw it from the other side. Earlier this year, as the pair struggled to find their rhythm, he felt a mental block. They trained well, but the results were not forthcoming. Injuries kept interrupting their progress, making it difficult to build any continuity.

Tan felt that sometimes the pressure came from the couple themselves. The lesson was not to eliminate pressure altogether, but to learn to deal with it.

This may be the biggest change in their approach to these Asian Games. They don’t claim to be immune to expectations. They try not to add to them themselves.

They will be the defending champions. They know that their opponents are preparing specially for them. They know they will be among the couples expected to fight for the gold. But Chirag doesn’t want to accept the idea that they are somehow an inevitable pair to beat.

“There are a lot of other good players as well,” he said. “I wouldn’t say we have any additional pressure.

LEAVE THE PRESSURE

Tan talked about how the couple could sometimes find themselves thinking, “You’ve got to win. You’ve got to win.” The Olympics provided another example of how expectations can become a burden.

Now Chirag is talking about doing almost the opposite.

“When we’re able to put the results aside and take it one game at a time, I think we’re really doing well,” he said.

This attitude is easier to understand after what happened in China. The China Masters was not just another title on their resume. It was a physical examination after trying months.

Satwik was struggling with a shoulder problem while the pair went into the World Cup with very little competitive rhythm. Their campaign ended in the quarter-finals and they did not look physically balanced.

China gave them a chance to test it again.

They played five matches, four of them starting three matches, spending more than five hours on the court during the tournament. Satwik admitted that they went to Shenzhen not knowing exactly how their bodies would react throughout the week.

“At the China Masters, we weren’t sure how much we could deal with the body during the week,” he said. “So we just took it one game at a time.

At the end, the uncertainty eased.

“Overall, it’s been pretty comfortable all week. That bodes well for the future.”

Chirag felt the contrast even more acutely. At the World Championships, they returned to competition after nearly three months and had little time to settle into the tournament before facing a tough Chinese pair in the quarter-finals. Their bodies didn’t handle it as well as they would have liked.

In China, the back-to-back three-match series has become almost a test of whether they are ready for what comes next.

“The body feels a lot better than it did at the World Cup,” Chirag said. “We’ve had another week of practice leading up to the China Masters and I think that really helped us succeed at the China Masters.”

For Satwik, continuity became important. Their rhythm was repeatedly disrupted by injury, and each interruption meant starting over.

“For me and Chirago, we need continuity of playing,” he said. “If you rest, I think it will take some time to get back into practice, get back up to speed, adjust the defense and everything.

So the China Masters gave them something more valuable than a trophy. It gave them proof that their bodies could handle the demands of a tournament that resembled what awaits them at the Asian Games, where the team event will be followed by the individual event.

“Whoever is fit enough to play for 10 days, I think will win the tournament,” Satwik said. “So it’s more tactical, strategic and physical. Courtesy: Badminton Photo

LESSONS FROM HANGZHOU

There are also lessons from Hangzhou that they want to take with them. They didn’t resist anything back then. They were trying to win the Asian Games for the first time. Still, even after the hard times during those 10 days, they managed to persevere.

“The only thing we had with us was hope,” Chirag recalled. “We wanted to go out there and give our best every day on the court and it ended up being really good for us.

Three years later, the circumstances are different, but the pair want to return to the same basic principle. Give your best every day. Prepare properly. Take it one match at a time. And perhaps most importantly, enjoy it.

Their game is also evolving. Satwik spoke of the importance of continuity, but the pair are also aware that staying on top means giving opponents something new to think about. Chirag pointed to Satwik’s improved follow-up game in China, where opponents repeatedly challenged him on his serve, only to find him catching shots he might have previously left to his partner.

“As athletes, you’re constantly evolving your game,” Chirag said. “When you can do that, you keep your opponents guessing because they don’t really know what’s going to hit them.”

It’s a useful parallel to their approach to pressure. They cannot control what opponents bring to court, any more than they can control what people expect of them. What they can control is how they respond.

And maybe that’s why winning the China Masters came at the right time.

The disappointment of the World Cup followed. It came after another break in their rhythm. She tested their bodies during five grueling matches. In the finals, they lost the opening match before settling down, sticking to their plans and winning the next two.

They didn’t have to force a comeback. They had to trust each other long enough to let it go.

They seem to be increasingly taking that philosophy with them to Nagoya. There will be pressure. There will be expectations. There will be opponents who arrive with nothing to lose. There will be days when things don’t go as planned.

But Satwik and Chirag have spent the last few years learning that the answer isn’t to demand a win from each other before they even step on the court. It’s about playing, trusting and this time having a little fun along the way.

For a partnership that now spans a decade, it might not be a bad way to approach the next Asian Games together.

– The end

Issued by:

Kingshuk Kusari

Published on:

08 Sep 2026 09:53 IST