4 Indian Athletes Whose Careers Are More Substance Than Hype

There are Indian athletes whose careers have yet to reach the highs expected of them.

Then there are others who have gone about their business quietly, without any pretensions to being ‘the next big thing’ and yet have created a mini-revolution in their respective sports.

Here, we highlight four Indian athletes whose careers have been more substance than hype.

Bharat Arun

India has never historically been a pace bowling nation. Even Indian greats such as Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath have had a bowling average of 30 as they often lacked quality fast-bowling support from the other end, resulting in India unable to win Test matches and series in West Indies and the SENA countries.

A lot changed after Bharat Arun was appointed the bowling coach from 2014 to 2015 and later from 2017 to 2021.

That period saw the rise of Jasprit Bumrah, saw improvement in career trajectories of Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma; and spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja reaching their career peaks.

For the first time in history, India had a formidable pace battery of Bumrah, Shami, Ishant, Umesh, Bhuvi and later Mohammed Siraj that each had unique strengths and were capable of taking 20 wickets against any opposition in any condition.

India won Tests in England, South Africa and two consecutive series in Australia. The 2021 series win in Australia came despite an inexperienced bowling attack.  Even the SENA Test losses (where India often had chances of victory) and ICC Tournament knock-out jinx during the period could be attributed more to batting failures rather than bowling lapses.

Bharat Arun may not have had a remarkable international career as a player, but his contributions as a coach should be celebrated more. Legends like Bumrah emerged during his tenure while established names saw career highs, and even new bowlers took easily to international cricket.

The absence of a coach like Arun was acutely felt during the recent disastrous New Zealand and Australia series where India won just 1 out of 8 Tests and were out of the 2023-25 ICC World Test Championship race.

Hype claim: If the hype parameter around Bharat Arun is that he is a good bowling coach, then perhaps hype is lesser than substance as in terms of results he is the best fast bowling coach the Indian team has had. Very few international teams have gone from having an ineffective pace attack to being pace bowling powerhouses in a short period. That period in India’s case coincided when Arun was the bowling coach.

Swapnil Kusale

It is a fact that Indian shooters often lack the mental toughness required for an Olympic medal and we have seen a number of things go wrong for Indian shooting teams at the Olympics and World Championships over the years.

The chances for things going wrong in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions are even greater as the discipline is the ‘marathon event’ of the shooting world.

First there is the 60-shot qualification round with 20 shots each in the 3 positions of kneeling, prone and standing from a distance of 50m. Then there is the long and arduous 45-shot final with 15 shots in each of the 3 positions, with the final 5 standing shots determining the eliminations and podiums.

A lot can go wrong in the final standing round given that the entire contest typically takes place in a semi-open-air range where shooters have to account for wind and light changes.

Compare this to 10m Air Rifle (the ‘ODI’ equivalent to 50m 3P’s Test match), where the 60-shot qualification round and 24-shot final round take place only in the standing position in an indoor range at a distance of 10m from the target.

Both disciplines are tough but 50m Rifle 3P requires more physical fitness, stamina and concentration.

India never had a notable historical record in 50m 3 Positions but in recent times shooters such as Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran, Swapnil Kusale and Sift Kaur Samra have emerged. Out of them only Kusale has managed to reach the coveted Olympic podium.

At the Paris Olympics where a number of Indian athletes narrowly missed out or lost their nerve at crucial moments, Kusale stood out with a composed performance for a Bronze-medal finish.

Now a Bronze medal may not look like much, but in the Indian context it was as good as gold. That Kusale managed to win in 50m Rifle 3P made it more special given the difficulty of the event.

Kusale, unlike many Indian shooters, learnt from his mistakes in the 2022 World Championships and 2023 Asian Games where just a couple of bad shots caused him to lose the podium place and finish fourth.

Manu Bhaker rightly gets the hype for her two medals, but Kusale has gone under the radar after Paris. More Indian shooters should learn from his example of staying calm under pressure.

Hype claim: If the perception around Swapnil Kusale is that he is merely a good shooter then perhaps hype is lesser than substance as he is one of the best and mentally strongest Indian shooters in history, and among the best in the world in his discipline.

Jyothi Surekha Vennam and the Compound Archery Team

At the 2023 World Archery Championships, members of India’s compound archery team won 3 Golds and a Bronze that ensured India topping the medal standings for the first time ever in history.

The team later followed it up with an incredible 5 out of 5 Golds at the Hangzhou Asian Games; a kind of dominance rarely seen from Indian athletes at elite sporting events, and only seen from South Korea in recurve archery.

While the likes of Aditi Swami, Ojas Deotale and Abhishek Verma rightly deserve a lot of credit for taking Indian compound archery to new heights, one name that stands out over the last decade is that of Jyothi Surekha Vennam.

Jyothi has been a consistent fixture in Indian WCH podium wins since 2017 and has been regularly been among the Asiad medalists since her debut in 2014.

Statistically, she is the most successful Indian archer in history when it comes to medals at the WCH and the Asian Games. This is not even counting her numerous World Cup and Asian Championship medals.

She has been at the forefront of India’s compound archery revolution. 2023 was probably her peak year when she won 3 Asiad Golds and a WCH team Gold and individual Bronze.

Now comparisons with Deepika Kumari are bound to happen even though Deepika participates in the Olympic recurve event where competition is tougher. Be that as it may, Jyothi has many more WCH and Asiad medals (including Golds) to her credit, indicating better big-match temperament.

That temperament will be put to test if Jyothi qualifies for the 2028 Olympics, where compound archery is to be featured for the first time ever. 

For now, though, she is the queen of Indian archery.

Hype claim: If the belief around Jyothi is that she is merely a very good archer, hype is lesser than substance, as she is arguably the greatest Indian archer in history and among the best in the world. Her event not being featured at the Olympics should not take away any credit from her and the compound archery team.

Indian Para-Athletes

For the first time ever, India finished in the top 20 of an Olympic/Paralympic medal table as Indian para-athletes won a total of 29 medals including 7 Golds for an 18^th place finish at Paris 2024. India’s 2024 Olympic medal table place meanwhile was 71^st.

India’s Paralympic performance was an improvement from an already historic Tokyo 2020 performance of 19 medals, including 5 Golds.

Being mentally strong, not crumbling under pressure, displaying incredible skills – India’s Paralympians succeeded where many able-bodied athletes failed.

It wasn’t just few individuals or one sport – Indian para-athletes excelled in Athletics, Shooting, Badminton, Table Tennis and Judo.

Names such as Avani Lekhara, Suhas Yathiraj and Sumit Antil are well-known, but even more stars have emerged – Sheetal Devi, Rakesh Kumar and Harvinder Singh in para-archery; Thulasimathi Murugesan, Manisha Ramadass and Nithya Sivan in para-badminton among others.

At Paris 2024, Preethi Pal, Deepthi Jeevanji and Simran Sharma won the first-ever Track medals for India at a major international event. There are many more such stories and names.

India is scheduled to hold the Para-Athletics World Championships this year, and it is hoped that the event can further raise the profile of para-sports in India.

Hype claim: Indian para-athletes are not just good, the 2016, 2021 and 2024 Paralympic squads were the best sporting contingents in Indian history and were impressive even by global standards.

Honourable Mentions

Aman Sehrawat for winning an Olympic Bronze in Paris 2024 amid much chaos in the Indian wrestling world. Sneh Rana for being the mentally strongest Indian Woman cricketer, exemplified by her match-saving performance at Bristol in 2021.