India's Asian Games badminton campaign ends with one bronze

India finished its badminton campaign at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with a men’s team bronze, falling short of the three medals it won in Hangzhou. Its individual entries all missed the podium, with the first-round defeat of defending men’s doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty among the biggest setbacks.

The team and individual competitions were packed into 10 days at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium. Players later raised concerns about the individual-event schedule, which required some of them to play multiple matches in a day with little recovery time.

Men secure India’s only medal

India’s men opened with a 3-0 win over Bangladesh before facing host Japan. Lakshya Sen came back to beat Kodai Naraoka in the first singles match, and straight-game wins by Satwik-Chirag and Ayush Shetty took India into the semifinals and secured a medal.

China, however, ended India’s bid for gold with a 3-1 semifinal victory. Satwik-Chirag claimed India’s only win in that tie. The women’s team also began with a 3-0 win, against Kazakhstan, but lost 1-3 to Japan despite Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand beating Yuki Fukushima and Maya Matsumoto.

Individual events bring more setbacks

Satwik-Chirag, who had arrived after winning the China Masters title, lost their opening individual match 21-12, 19-21, 14-21 to Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Peeratchai Sukphun. Lakshya went out in the second round to Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew, while Ayush lost to Chou Tien-chen in the round of 16.

In women’s singles, P. V. Sindhu and Unnati Hooda both reached the quarterfinals. Sindhu lost 21-11, 18-21, 10-21 to China’s Chen Yu Fei on Court 4, where there was no Hawk-Eye or provision for player challenges. Both Indian players subsequently said the scheduling could have been better managed.

Treesa-Gayatri beat Fukushima and Matsumoto again in the individual event, but Malaysia’s Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan stopped them in the quarterfinals. Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also reached the mixed doubles quarterfinals, losing 14-21, 21-18, 18-21 to China’s Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping.

Questions after a crowded programme

The men’s team bronze was India’s only badminton medal, compared with three in Hangzhou. Alongside the individual defeats, the compressed schedule and the absence of player challenges on Sindhu’s quarterfinal court remain issues raised by the campaign.