The Bryanesque screaming in delight and jumping into each others’ arms was greeted with a standing ovation by the captivated crowd. A day later, the pair was calmly shaking hands after completing the formalities of winning another national title.

Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar’s exuberance may be justified, but that was the closest the defending champions came to being challenged. In a meet that had the country’s best doubles talent on display, they were pushed by a scratch pairing playing their first and, in all likelihood, only high-profile tournament together. One half of it was a singles specialist in team colours — Anup Sridhar, and V Diju.

The runaway winners, however, are not even in the national team for the next three tournaments. For a country looking at this year as one where all of badminton’s sweet spots of last season are expected to spread wider, the men’s doubles is a hole hard to fill.

Thomas and Rupesh are ranked 25th in the world. The next Indian names are at the 90th spot, that of Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal, former junior national champions who paired up again only recently.

“The picture is not rosy,” admits Leroy D’Sa, a doubles specialist in his playing years and a former national doubles coach. “Sanave and Rupesh are undoubtedly the best pair at the moment, but there is a very big gap that needs to be filled,” he adds, who couldn’t be in Indore and said he would wait before commenting on the upcoming crop.

... contd.