Asian Games: Satwik, Treesa at the net, Chirag and Gayatri smashing from the back

Asian Games 2026: India's best doubles pairs are abandoning fixed roles for something harder to scout against. (File)

Where badminton forks away from volleyball and develops a personality of its own is when Treesa Jolly starts dribbling at the net, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy uses strategic high lifts, imparting visible deceleration on the shuttle with the slightest of backswings, unlike the expansive one behind his 500kph smash.

Treesa can poke and prod at the net with the tiniest tilts of the thumb metacarpal and first phalanx, a skill she learned beyond her core capability as a smash hitter herself.

With just two people on the court, badminton’s ace doubles practitioners don’t have the luxury of role-assigned blockers, setters, spikers or a super-specific libero. Chirag Shetty is expected to dive full-stretch in defence for a block, run the offence like a setter for Satwik, and soar high for a tracked-back smash two returns later, all in the same rally. Gayatri Gopichand was always underestimated for her smashing, until the Delhi World Championships, when her forehand cross-court smash left China’s Jia Yifan unable to guard her back court.

ALSO READ | ‘A sense of belonging, we owe it to each other’: Satwik-Chirag on their bond

The Indian doubles style has evolved in 2026 with deceptive personalities at its core, and a healthy disregard for being hemmed in by restrictive definitions. The last two World Championship medals have come from doubles, Satwik-Chirag first, Treesa-Gayatri most recently, and both pairs are redrawing what an Indian doubles player plays like: everything, everywhere, all at once, coherent to each other even when the world watches, puzzled.

Satwik and Chirag don’t feel extra pressure to defend the Asian Games crown. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)

The unmaking of the label, “Satwik, Treesa smash” or “Chirag, Gayatri set it up”, was at the core of this evolution. Satwik’s shoulder gave way. Treesa was forced to sit out, nursing a foot injury, and used the time to train meditatively on the hundred ways to dribble. PV Sindhu had done something similar in late 2015 with a hurt foot of her own. Treesa, a sponge for new skills, decided to shape-shift her game entirely to master the net, before the pair won bronze in Delhi.

Chirag and Gayatri, meanwhile, remain quietly in awe of their respective partners’ big smashes, and tend to hide their own sharp-sniping abilities, which aren’t shabby at all. It helps that they’re underestimated. It’s worth a chuckle that Chirag’s fastest recorded lab smash still reads 552kph, even if it falls short of Satwik’s 565kph.

Like Sindhu in singles, both Treesa and Satwik were smash machines once. But that isn’t sustainable on the back and shoulder. So both learned the meditative art of slowing their breathing, using the racquet as a scalpel rather than a scythe, and discovering the “feel” on the shuttle in badminton’s unspoken battle zone: the net.

Gayatri’s smashes work on placement more than power, an important distinction, since Japanese and Chinese women’s doubles pairs are trained specifically to pick apart the hardest hits. Her vision in finding gaps is an innate skill, and she plays close-range confrontations with a ticking brain and locked wrists. This isn’t just a rotation in her game. It’s closer to a full flip in her repertoire.

Satwik-Chirag won the “first three shots” battle at China Masters, where trick serves were on show. Gayatri is being tutored in spinny serves by the least-known member of her family, her brother Vishnu, a former shuttler now graduating from Loughborough.

Leaping high and unleashing a gigantic smash had been second nature to Treesa. But when your game is that aligned to one shot, you’re one video-analysis session away from being countered. That’s why Treesa summoned something closer to sorcery at the net: canny strokes, serve variations, and the audacity to dribble rather than shy away from close combat, which is what most net scenarios demand.

These weren’t make-do parries at the net. Proper keeps, precise taps, choosy pushes, subtly varying serves, none of the escape-lifts. Gayatri’s interceptions look effortless; Treesa’s take real daring to catch fast drives at the net. While the world stayed stuck on Gayatri’s surname and Treesa’s smash, the duo were quietly outrunning the predictability of how they were seen. If they can hold this chameleon act through back-to-back matches going deep into a tournament, they’re too cerebral not to wed savage attack to subtle sniping.

There’s a Nicolas Cage-John Travolta film from before any of these four were born. But Satwik-Chirag and Treesa-Gayatri are, right now, in the Face/Off stage of their rotational play. That vice-versa trick, the devilish duality, is what Indian doubles play can be defined as.

Shivani Naik is a senior sports journalist and Assistant Editor at The Indian Express. She is widely considered one of the leading voices in Indian Olympic sports journalism, particularly known for her deep expertise in badminton, wrestling, and basketball. Professional Profile Role: Assistant Editor and Columnist at The Indian Express. Specialization: While she covers a variety of sports, she is the primary authority on badminton for the publication. She also writes extensively about tennis, track and field, wrestling, and gymnastics. Writing Style: Her work is characterized by "technical storytelling"—breaking down the biomechanics, tactics, and psychological grit of athletes. She often provides "long reads" that explore the personal journeys of athletes beyond the podium. Key Topics & Recent Coverage (Late 2025) Shivani Naik’s recent articles (as of December 2025) focus on the evolving landscape of Indian sports as athletes prepare for the 2026 Asian Games and beyond: Indian Badminton's "Hulks": She has recently written about a new generation of Indian shuttlers characterized by power and physicality, such as Ayush Shetty and Sathish Karunakaran, marking a shift from the traditionally finesse-based Indian style. PV Sindhu’s Resurgence: A significant portion of her late-2025 work tracks PV Sindhu’s tactical shifts under new coaching, focusing on her "sparkle" and technical tweaks to break out of career slumps. The "Group of Death": In December 2025, she provided detailed tactical previews for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s campaign in the BWF World Tour Finals. Tactical Deep Dives: She frequently explores technical trends, such as the rise of "backhand deception" in modern badminton and the importance of court drift management in international arenas. Legacy and History: She often revisits the careers of legends like Saina Nehwal and Syed Modi, providing historical context to current Indian successes. Notable Recent Articles BWF World Tour Finals: Satwik-Chirag have it all to do to get through proverbial Group of Death. (Dec 2025) The age of Hulks in Indian badminton is here. (Dec 2025) Treadmill, Yoganidra and building endurance: The themes that defined the resurgence of Gayatri and Treesa. (Dec 2025) Ayush Shetty beats Kodai Naraoka: Will 20-year-old be the headline act in 2026? (Nov 2025) Modern Cinderella tale – featuring An Se-young and a shoe that fits snugly. (Nov 2025) Other Sports Interests Beyond the court, Shivani is a passionate follower of South African cricket, sometimes writing emotional columns about her irrational support for the Proteas, which started because of love for Graeme Smith's dour and doughty Test playing style despite being a left-hander, and sustained over curiosity over their heartbreaking habit of losing ICC knockouts. You can follow her detailed analysis and columns on her official Indian Express profile page. ... Read More