Gold in girls’s doubles in 2014, and silver in girls’s doubles and combined doubles in 2018 — these had been the performances on the Commonwealth Video games that the Indian squash contingent was attempting to take inspiration from and construct on in Birmingham.
The marketing campaign began on a excessive for the Indian staff with its youngest member — 14-year-old Anahat Singh — successful her first match on Commonwealth Video games debut. For the following few days, the contingent’s hopes had been pinned on veteran Saurav Ghosal who was the one Indian participant within the singles semifinals to guarantee India of a primary Commonwealth Video games singles medal in squash.
Saurav was pitted towards 2018 Commonwealth Video games gold medallist and former coaching associate James Wilstrop within the bronze medal match. He outclassed the previous World No. 1 3-0 for the primary time, conceding solely a single level within the second recreation.
India went into the doubles matches — the occasions with the perfect probability of procuring a medal — on the again of this victory and on the again of its medal-winning efficiency on the World Doubles Championships only a few months earlier. Nonetheless, India’s golden women from 2014 — Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Joshna Chinnapa — crashed out earlier than the medal rounds within the girls’s doubles.
A medal was gained in combined doubles, Saurav and Dipika successful bronze, but it surely was a worse outcome than at Gold Coast 4 years in the past, after they gained silver.
Ultimately, it's maybe secure to say that Saurav, along with his two medals, saved India the blushes.
