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Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal opened up on the constant comparison between badminton and cricket and reacted to KKR star Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s displeasing remark he made a few months ago about Nehwal. Notably, Raghuvanshi found himself in hot waters after he mocked the 2012 Olympic medallist. While the cricketer deleted his comment on social media, Nehwal indirectly gave a response to the comment and claimed that star pacer Jasprit Bumrah won’t be able to play her smash.
Nehwal, considered as the torchbearer of women’s badminton in India, appeared on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast where she said that if Bumrah clashes against her on badminton court, he won’t be able to play her smash. The 34-year-old said, “Few were saying I cannot survive Bumrah’s bowling. If he plays badminton with me, he might not be able to survive my smash. We should not fight ourselves in our country for these things. That’s what I want to say.”
She added, “Every sport is best in its place. But I want to say give value to other sports as well, otherwise, where will our sporting culture from? And cricket, Bollywood will always be our focus.”
It was after Neeraj’s medal I got to know about the event in athletics: Saina Nehwal
The Hisar-born made a shocking revelation and said that she didn’t know about the javelin throw until Neeraj Chopra won an Olympics medal in Tokyo 2020. Nehwal said, “ When Neeraj won, that’s when I got to know there’s such an event in athletics.” Notably, five years before becoming the Olympic gold medallist, Neeraj clinched the title of the junior world champion in 2016.
On the podcast, Nehwal also said, “How will you become at Virat at that level? How will you become Rohit Sharma? So many players have to become like them. They can’t. Only a few of them are like that. But I just feel that it’s more of a skill-based sport. And bowlers, I agree. Why would I play cricket to die?”
