Even as India pulled off an entertaining badminton mixed team gold-winning performance against favourites Malaysia, the tall, broad frame of HS Prannoy was unmistakable with its constant presence by courtside. Cheering his compatriots from the sidelines, Prannoy watched as Kidambi Srikanth played all of the men's singles matches for India, but come Wednesday, the spotlight will be on the third seed in the men's singles, as he begins his campaign against Christopher Jean Paul of Mauritius.
"I am not even thinking about the Commonwealth Games. It's a big event I know, but for me, things go well when I am not really thinking about it much," Prannoy told ESPN days before leaving for Gold Coast. He felt going into big tournaments without feeling the need to execute plans worked well for him, most recently during a run to the All England quarterfinals, starting his campaign with a win over eighth-seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
"I was doubtful of playing, but I decided to just go and see. I just wanted to play; whatever, even if I lose 21-5, 21-6, that's fine. The first game was a bit dicey -- I was thinking about so many other things -- but in the second game, things changed and it felt really easy. From there, it actually went well."
It is perhaps this ability to make things look easy that has marked Prannoy out as one of the biggest giant-killers in his sport. Srikanth, Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, Chen Long -- all have fallen at the hands of Prannoy in the past, and Srikanth points to Prannoy as one of three main contenders for the men's singles title in Gold Coast, alongside Lee and England's Rajiv Ouseph.
One tick mark missing from Prannoy's impressive career resume, though, is an individual medal at a major multi-discipline event. Part of that could be down to a spate of injuries, but Prannoy had not been part of an Indian contingent at an event like Gold Coast since the Youth Olympics in Singapore eight years ago. "There was no squad, only Sai [Praneeth] and me, and that was the first thing for me. I was just clueless about what was happening, but there was a lot of hype about it because I got a silver medal in that. That was a big news at that point of time, because we didn't have a lot of results other than the seniors performing."
It had already been a rollercoaster journey to that silver medal for Trivandrum-born Prannoy, who began his journey in sport playing cricket, and aspired to be a bowler. The inspiration for badminton came from his father, who played the game himself. "I used to go around wherever he used to play. The basics were really quick [to pick] for me," he said. "That's why I came into this sport, because I started to pick up the basics really fast compared to other kids. I came and in three or four months, I started playing tournaments."
Prannoy bemoaned the lack of facilities, and the "politics" in badminton in Kerala, and said his days in U-13 badminton were made difficult because of financial circumstances and a lack of support from his state. "I was at least winning the state championships, and wasn't performing well in nationals," he said, citing why he chose to persist with the sport. "But then at U-16, the good thing was slowly performances at national level started coming in. I was getting a bit more sponsorship, like from Air India. Those things started to happen and luckily I could come to Hyderabad on time, and I got a call for the first time for the national camp. From there, things changed. If I was in Kerala, there was no chance."
For all his talk of approaching the game with an open mind, Prannoy did admit to being more open to analysing his own game and those of his opponents better lately. He credited a lot of it to a family friend from Trivandrum based in Singapore -- a "die-hard fan of badminton, who knows everyone in and out" -- whom Prannoy credited for critical feedback before every match over the last four or five years. "Earlier I just used to go randomly and play. But in the last one year, I have gone back to basics, seeing videos and carrying notes of whoever I play," he said. "It's easy because just before getting onto the court, you can just read it and get on to the court and you know exactly what is going to come."
Those preparations will come in handy in Gold Coast, where Prannoy could run into Lee and Srikanth in the final two matches of the men's singles draw. "Sometimes things change, but I think as a whole 80 to 90 percent [of the time], you know exactly where the shuttle is going to come. You just need to execute it really well, so I think all this planning is really important, especially against big players where you feel you have only one or two chances of getting them."