The Thomas Cup triumph made for an epic success story while Neeraj Chopra further enhanced his superstar status with a rare Diamond League title, but the cricket team's struggles on the 22-yard strip left a lot to be desired in a bittersweet 2022 for Indian sports. (More Sports News)
In hockey, the women's team continued its inspiring run with a silver medal at the Bir🍃mingham Commonwealth Game🍬s.
The much-coveted 90m mark eluded the Olym🧸pic champion, but the legend of Neeraj Chopra kept growing with podium finishes at elite tournaments.
However, wrestler Ravi Dahiya could not carry forw🍎ard his Olympic success and made a shock first-round exit from the World Championship.
Tꦕhe sincere, pass🍸ionate and hard-working athlete that Dahiya is, the defeat would have rankled the grappler the most.
He is not someᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚone who can digest defeat easily and is expected go all out in season 2023, when quotas for the Paris Games will be up f🍸or grabs.
The crashing out of Dahiya was unexpected, and so was the♏ per🌞formance of the men's shuttlers at the Thomas Cup, where the historic title win put India on the path to becoming a badminton powerhouse.
The rise of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty has been phenomenal in the last two years and their showing was🍸 key in India breaking the hegemony of China and Indoneꩵsia at the prestigious tournament, held in Bangkok in May.
Established stars such as PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen did not exactly set the 𒊎courts on fire but they made their presꦍence felt by winning a number of titles on the BWF Tour.
The shuttlers extende🥃d their impressive run to Birmingham CWG, winning six medals, including three golds, a silver and two bronzes.
Neeraj missed the CWG d🎃ue to a groin injury, but beforღe that he won a silver in the World Championships in the USA to become only the second Indian after Anju Bobby George -- who won a bronze in the 2003 Paris edition -- to win a medal at the showpiece.
In September, he became the Diamond League champion🐼 by winning the Finals of the prestigious meeting series, 💛adding another first to his name.
He came agonisingly close to 90m mark when he threw the spear to 89.94m to finish second in the🐼 Stockholm leg of the Diamond ꦡLeague.
At 𓂃least six top Indian athletes were caught for usi𒁏ng banned drugs and the run-up to the Commonwealth Games was marred by a series of positive dope cases.
Indian wrestlers expectedly dominated the CWG but thℱe tougher World Championships ser꧟ved a reality check for established stars such as Dahiya.
While Dahiya struggled, Aman Sehrawat made steady progress in 57k👍g category. He became the U-23 world champion after winning a gold at the Bolat Turlykhanov 🙈Cup in Almaty.
Vinesh Phogat also struggled, but the rise of Greco-Roman wrestle💟rs and an exceptional show by the juniors on the big stage made i♊t an eventful year for Indian wrestling.
The rise of Antim Panghal, who became the U-20 world champion in Sofia, is very heartening and she could be India's best bet 🤪in 53kg w🍃hen Vinesh is not around.
The Indian hockey teams continued their upward trend, with the women slightly outperforming their male counterparts by clinching a CWG medal -- a bronz♏e -- after 16 years.
The men's team won silver🐓, but the crushing 0-7 defeat t🦋o Australia in the final was a dampener.
Later in the year, 👍India clashed with the Kookaburras on their home turf and though they lost the series 1-4, engagi𒐪ng the host in a high-scoring series would have given the players confidence ahead of the World Cup.
Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu added a second🌸 World Championships medal to her collection, apart from a CWG gold. The sport also found new heroes in Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Achinta Sheuli, who were among 10 medal winners in Birmingham.
However, replicating🐷 the CWG success i🧔n tougher tournaments proved to be a herculean task for almost all of them, barring Mirabai.
India, though, got its maiden junior world champion in the sp𝔍ort in🌺 Harshada Garud.
What the Indian fans will not forget an🌃d can watch on a loop without getting tired is Virat Kohli's breathtakiꦜng shots in the high-octane T20 World Cup match against Pakistan.
♍The cricketing world was in his 🍒awe as he proved that batting remains an art even in the T20 format, where muscle power and innovation is redefining the game style.
This was after Kohli quit the leadership role in the long🍃est format and his relatio⛄nship with the BCCI had hit a nadir after being sacked from ODI captaincy.
To🔥 say the least, Indian cricket in 2022 was chaotic both on and off the field.
The struggle of premier batters, including th꧂at of skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, remained an intense topic of debate. Their approach was questioned as the Indian team often paid the price for their struggle in powerplay overs.
Hardik Pandya emerged 🥂as a new ꧂leader of the national T20 team as Rohit paid the price for another semi-final exit in the World Cup following a crushing defeat at the hands of England.
The team also lost a Test series in South Africa.
While the established players struggled, one batter who mesmerized the fans and experts alike was Suryakumar Yadav. His ability to strike the ball hard and clean was phenomenal as he took T20 batting to another level, drawing comparisons with the great AB ꧑de Villiers.
The way Sourav Ganguly's tenure ended as BCCI pres🤪ident also invited criticism. The Supreme Court allowed him to continue as president, but theܫ board installed Roger Binny as the new chief.
