Badminton in India

Main article: India national badminton team

Badminton in India
Country	India
Governing body	Badminton Association of India
National team(s)	India national badminton team
National competitions
National Championships (1934–present)
Club competitions
Premier Badminton League (2016–present)
International competitions
Olympic Games x1 x2 Paralympic Games x3 x3 x3 World Championships x1 x4 x9 Asian Games x1 x2 x10 Asian Para Games x8 x8 x21 South Asian Games x34 x21 x3

Badminton is a popular sport in India. It is managed by the Badminton Association of India which is associated with Badminton Asia and Badminton World Federation.

Indian shuttlers Prakash Padukone, Srikanth Kidambi, Jwala Gutta, Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, H. S. Prannoy, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have all ranked in the world's top ten.

Prakash Padukone was the first player from India to achieve the world no. 1 spot in the game, after which Srikanth Kidambi became the second male player to make it to the top spot in April 2018. Saina Nehwal was the first female player from India to achieve the world no. 1 spot, which she did in April 2015, and the first Indian badminton player to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

P. V. Sindhu is the first Indian to become the World Champion, which she achieved in 2019, and the only badminton player from India to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic Games. One of the most successful Indian doubles player is Jwala Gutta, who was the only Indian to have rank in the top 10 of two categories. She peaked at #6 with Valiyaveetil Diju in mixed doubles and at #10 with Ashwini Ponnappa in women's doubles.

Other successful players include Pullela Gopichand, Aparna Popat, Syed Modi, Chetan Anand, and Parupalli Kashyap.

History

Indian National Badminton Team at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand both won the All England Open in 1980 and 2001 respectively, making them the only Indians to win the prestigious title.

Saina Nehwal won the bronze medal in the individual women's competition at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the first Olympic medal for the country in badminton. P. V. Sindhu won the second and the third Olympic medals in badminton for India, winning a silver and a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics respectively.

India has won several medals at the BWF World Championships as well, with Prakash Padukone winning the first in 1982. The doubles pairing of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa became the first women to win a medal when they won the bronze in 2011. P. V. Sindhu then won consecutive bronze medals at 2013 and 2014 editions, the first Indian player to do so. Saina Nehwal won a first-ever silver at the 2015 Championships, and then a bronze in 2017. P. V. Sindhu won silver in consecutive editions in 2017 and 2018. Sindhu then went on to win the gold at the 2019 BWF World Championships and become the first Indian to ever finish on top of the podium. At the same edition, B. Sai Praneeth medalled in the men's singles after 36 years, clinching the bronze. As a result, for the first time, India won medals in two different disciplines in the same BWF World Championships edition. In 2021, Lakshya Sen won the bronze medal in men's singles while Srikanth Kidambi won the silver, the first time India had two medallists in the same edition in the men's singles discipline. In 2022, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won India's first World Championship medal in the men's doubles, a bronze. Till date, India has never returned empty handed from the World Championships since 2011.

At the BWF World Junior Championships, Saina Nehwal is the only gold medalist for India, which she achieved in 2008. At the Badminton Asia Junior Championships, P. V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen are the only gold medalists for India, winning in their respective categories in 2012 and 2018 respectively.

Player Name	Discipline	Best ranking	Olympic medals	World Championship medals
Saina Nehwal	Women's Singles	1	1	2
P. V. Sindhu	Women's Singles	2	2	5
Prakash Padukone	Men's Singles	1	-	1
Srikanth Kidambi	Men's Singles	1	-	1
Lakshya Sen	Men's Singles	6	-	1
H. S. Prannoy	Men's Singles	6	-	1
B. Sai Praneeth	Men's Singles	10	-	1
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty	Men's Doubles	1	-	1
Jwala Gutta and V. Diju	Mixed Doubles	6	-	-
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa	Women's Doubles	10	-	1
India	Team	5	N.A.	N.A.

Current rankings

• As per December 2024

Men's singles

World Rank	Player
12	Lakshya Sen
26	Prannoy H. S.
34	Priyanshu Rajawat
38	Kiran George
41	Srikanth Kidambi
45	Sathish Karunakaran
48	Ayush Shetty
59	Tharun Manepalli
61	Meiraba Maisnam
63	Rithvik Sanjeevi

Women's singles

World Rank	Player
15	PV Sindhu
32	Malvika Bansod
46	Anupama Upadhyaya
47	Aakarshi Kashyap
50	Rakshitha Ramraj
58	Tasnim Mir
59	Tanya Hemanth
61	Isharani Baruah
67	Anmol Kharb
70	Ashmita Chaliha
79	Devika Sihag
80	Unnati Hooda
88	Shriyanshi Valishetty
92	Samiya Farooqui

Men's doubles

World Rank	Player
4	Chirag Shetty Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
43	K. Sai Pratheek Krishna Prasad Garaga

Women's doubles

World Rank	Player
13	Treesa Jolly Gayatri Gopichand
16	Tanisha Crasto Ashwini Ponnappa
37	Rutaparna Panda Swetaparna Panda
56	Shruti Mishra Priya Konjengbam
74	Simran Singhi Ritika Thaker

Mixed doubles

World Rank	Player
32	Sumeeth Reddy N. Sikki Reddy
35	Aadya Variyath Sathish Karunakaran
47	Rohan Kapoor Ruthvika Gadde
50	Tanisha Crasto Dhruv Kapila

Medal table

Tournament	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Olympic Games	0	1	2	3
Paralympic Games	3	3	3	9
World Championships	1	4	9	14
Para World Championships	21.5	15.5	51	88
Thomas Cup	1	0	3	4
Uber Cup	0	0	3	3
Sudirman Cup	0	0	0	0
Asia Championships	2	0	16	18
Asia Team Championships	1	1	2	4
Asia Mixed Team Championships	0	0	1	1
Asian Games	1	2	10	13
Asian Para Games	8	8	21	37
South Asian Games	34	21	3	58
Commonwealth Games	10	8	13	31
Total	82.5	63.5	137	283

• Updated till 19 September, 2024

Olympic Games

Year	Event	Player	Result
2024	Men's singles	Lakshya Sen	4th
		Prannoy H. S.	Round of 16
	Women's singles	P. V. Sindhu	Round of 16
	Men's doubles	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Chirag Shetty	Quarter-finals
	Women's doubles	Ashwini Ponnappa Tanisha Crasto	Group stage
2020	Men's singles	B. Sai Praneeth	Group stage
	Women's singles	P. V. Sindhu
	Men's doubles	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy Chirag Shetty	Group stage
2016	Men's singles	Srikanth Kidambi	Quarter-finals
	Women's singles	P. V. Sindhu
	Women's singles	Saina Nehwal	Group stage
	Men's doubles	Manu Attri B. Sumeeth Reddy	Group stage
	Women's doubles	Jwala Gutta Ashwini Ponnappa	Group stage
2012	Men's singles	Parupalli Kashyap	Quarter-finals
	Women's singles	Saina Nehwal
	Women's doubles	Jwala Gutta Ashwini Ponnappa	Group stage
	Mixed doubles	Valiyaveetil Diju Jwala Gutta	Group stage
2008	Men's singles	Anup Sridhar	Second round
	Women's singles	Saina Nehwal	Quarter-finals
2004	Men's singles	Nikhil Kanetkar	Round of 16
	Men's singles	Abhinn Shyam Gupta	Round of 32
	Women's singles	Aparna Popat	Round of 16
2000	Men's singles	Pullela Gopichand	Third round
	Women's singles	Aparna Popat	First round
1996	Men's singles	Deepankar Bhattacharya	Second round
	Women's singles	P. V. V. Lakshmi	Second round
1992	Men's singles	Deepankar Bhattacharya	Third round
	Women's singles	Madhumita Bisht	Second round
	Men's doubles	Deepankar Bhattacharya U. Vimal Kumar	First round

Paralympic Games

Year	Event	Player	Result
2024	Men's singles SL3	Manoj Sarkar	Group stage
		Nitesh Kumar
	Men's singles SL4	Suhas Yathiraj
		Sukant Kadam	4th
		Tarun Dhillon	Group stage
	Men's singles SH6	Krishna Nagar	Group stage
		Sivarajan Solaimalai	Group stage
	Women's singles SL3	Manasi Joshi	Group stage
		Mandeep Kaur	Quarter-finals
	Women's singles SL4	Palak Kohli	Quarter-finals
	Women's singles SU5	Thulasimathi Murugesan
		Manisha Ramadass
	Women's singles SH6	Nithya Sivan
	Mixed doubles SL3–SU5	Nitesh Kumar Thulasimathi Murugesan	Group stage
		Suhas Yathiraj Palak Kohli	Group stage
	Mixed doubles SH6	Sivarajan Solaimalai Nithya Sivan	4th
2020	Men's singles SL3	Pramod Bhagat
		Manoj Sarkar
	Men's singles SL1	Tarun Dhillon	4th
		Suhas Yathiraj
	Men's singles SH6	Krishna Nagar
	Women's singles SL4	Parul Parmar	Group stage
	Women's singles SU5	Palak Kohli	Quarter-finals
	Women's doubles SL3–SU5	Parul Parmar Palak Kohli	Group stage
	Mixed doubles SL3–SU5	Pramod Bhagat Palak Kohli	4th

National award recipients

Year	Recipient	Award	Gender
2000–2001	Pullela Gopichand	Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna	Male
2010	Saina Nehwal	Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna	Female
2016	P. V. Sindhu	Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna	Female
1961	Nandu M. Natekar	Arjuna Award	Male
1962	Meena Shah	Arjuna Award	Female
1965	Dinesh Khanna	Arjuna Award	Male
1967	Suresh Goel	Arjuna Award	Male
1969	Dipu Ghosh	Arjuna Award	Male
1970	Damayanti Tambay	Arjuna Award	Female
1971	Sobha Morthy	Arjuna Award	Female
1972	Prakash Padukone	Arjuna Award	Male
1974	Raman Ghosh	Arjuna Award	Male
1975	Devinder Ahuja	Arjuna Award	Male
1976	Ami Ghia	Arjuna Award	Female
1977–1978	Kanwal Thakar Singh	Arjuna Award	Female
1980–1981	Syed Modi	Arjuna Award	Male
1982	Madhumita Bisht	Arjuna Award	Female
1982	Partho Ganguli	Arjuna Award	Male
1999	Pullela Gopichand	Arjuna Award	Male
2000	George Thomas	Arjuna Award	Male
2004	Abhinn Shyam Gupta	Arjuna Award	Male
2005	Aparna Popat	Arjuna Award	Female
2006	Chetan Anand	Arjuna Award	Male
2007	Anup Sridhar	Arjuna Award	Male
2009	Saina Nehwal	Arjuna Award	Female
2011	Jwala Gutta	Arjuna Award	Female
2012	Parupalli Kashyap	Arjuna Award	Male
2012	Ashwini Ponnappa	Arjuna Award	Female
2013	P. V. Sindhu	Arjuna Award	Female
2014	Valiyaveetil Diju	Arjuna Award	Male
2015	Srikanth Kidambi	Arjuna Award	Male
2018	N. Sikki Reddy	Arjuna Award	Female
2019	B. Sai Praneeth	Arjuna Award	Male
2020	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	Arjuna Award	Male
2020	Chirag Shetty	Arjuna Award	Male
2022	Lakshya Sen	Arjuna Award	Male
2022	Prannoy H. S.	Arjuna Award	Male
2020	Pradeep Shrikrishna Gandhe	Dhyan Chand Award	Male
2020	Trupti Murgunde	Dhyan Chand Award	Female
2017	G. S. S. V. Prasad +	Dronacharya Award	Male
2000	S. M. Arif	Dronacharya Award	Male
2009	Pullela Gopichand	Dronacharya Award	Male
2019	U. Vimal Kumar	Dronacharya Award	Male

Key

+ Indicates a Lifetime contribution honour

Former notable players

• Nandu Natekar
• Prakash Padukone
• Dinesh Khanna
• Syed Modi
• Pullela Gopichand
• Chetan Anand
• Aparna Popat
• Nikhil Kanetkar
• U. Vimal Kumar
• Sanave Thomas
• P. V. V. Lakshmi

See also

• Badminton Association of India
• India national badminton team
• Indian National Badminton Championships