With injuries capable of thwarting even the most talented strokemakers in men’s singles badminton from achieving meteoric rises into the Top 20s, India will look for power-packed physicality to deliver the goods in 2026. Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat, Kiran George (who’s made finals at Odisha), will continue to let their court-craft and tactical finesse do the talking. Sen can realistically target the All Englands and Asian Games as his game acquires a roundedness that can navigate injury management effectively.
But don’t be surprised if those making waves in the next season are the likes of
Ayush Shetty, Satish Karunakaran, Tharun Mannepalli, Sanskar Saraswat and Rounak Chouhan – though the last mentioned from Chhattisgarh has a long way to go. But it is the honed physicality and commitment to play that booming game, like PV Sindhu was once unabashedly known for, that makes these names capable of suddenly popping up and winning unexpectedly.
Power has very few ripostes. The unreturnable smash can gloss over deficiencies in other aspects of play, it can spare them those 5 extra strokes Lakshya Sen is forced to play because he can’t cannonball the shuttle like some of these giants can. Power can be a one-trick pony, but that one trick is fairly potent, a vocal solo needing no acoustics or percussion to build up a crescendo. That is not to say that these towering shuttlers play only with power. But being in possession of that kind of game offers a spine, an axis to the game around which other strokes, defense and game intelligence can value-add.
Ayush, the 6’4″ who trains with Viktor Axelsen, has had a season to stabilise, and though it held sophomore blues within it – especially losses against Sen – he looks sharp and ready to strike, when a good draw and his explosive week in the season’s calendar align.
Sathish Karunakaran who trains in Malaysia, is slowly beginning to stop hustling in mixed doubles, and focus on singles exclusively. He has the capability and scientific conditioning for the big attack, but he’s grown up playing a defensive style that will take some unlearning.
Tharun, another hulking shuttler, will most benefit from the guidance of Pullela Gopichand – coaches at the academy, the fitness backing and choosing of tournaments to plot a rise, not unlike Ayush Shetty’s under Vimal Kumar.
Sanskar Saraswat was surprise winner at the Guwahati Super 100, and that was in large parts why the towering, muscling men can be always dangerous – they can hit through anyone, if the conditions are conducive and playing at an arena where he trains, helped him string together the wins that back his long-believed potential. At 6’2″ and still only 19, Saraswat has the ingredients, though he’s capable of impetuous errors and equally likely to fritter advantages of the big game, by losing his radar. But those round the head smashes nailing the lines at Guwahati, come far more effortlessly to his big frame than they would to Sen or Priyanshu, considerably more talented in their strokeplay.
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Saraswat’s read of the game though, is pretty special.
Chauhan is a slam-bang, all-guns- blazing one moment, and fading off promptly the next sort of a teenager. He really has no wins to talk of, even in juniors, let alone seniors. But his support set-up, coached at the National Centre in Guwahati and access to top-level fitness and mental strength supprt from Reliance, plus a Mad Max game style, make him a volatile mix of potential and visible pitfalls. Still the attack-minded intent, backed by a smash that smacks down, is not to be ignored.
India’s attention cannot be dragged away from the search for the next big thing in women’s singles. After Saina and Sindhu, that was inevitable – and Unnati Hooda, Tanvi Sharma & Co will be keenly followed in 2026. But results might well fetch up sooner for men’s singles.
Ayush and Tharun have made it to the Asian Team Championships squad for February, and will benefit from sharing team huddles with Sen, Srikanth and Prannoy, who know a thing or dozen more about how attacking badminton and power-smashes work at the top level. A bulk of them get defended and blunted – a reality that these 5 will soberingly learn.
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You need more than power to win, as any of Prannoy, Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag or even Treesa Jolly will tell them. But power-attacks are very useful in the armoury, if you know when to summon them.