Srikanth will make India proud at Olympics if only he overcomes this one flaw

The language of India's badminton challenge in Rio is Telugu. But when there is a fight for every point on court, there is nothing sweet about the language that is considered one of the sweetest in the world.

Mid-game, the instructions from Pullela Gopichand, India's national badminton coach, to his protégé Kidambi Srikanth on strategy, are sharp.

Delivered in their mother tongue, they perhaps help soothe frayed nerves, with a sense of the familiar in an unfamiliar land.

Srikanth, whose brother Nandagopal also is a badminton player, incidentally started off as a doubles player, before Gopichand spotted the spark in him to be a good singles player.

But his pedigree in doubles comes in handy as he is still superb at the net and has a natural affinity for powerful smashes. In the last two matches at Rio, Srikanth has used both these facets of his game to good effect.

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But at the highest level, it is not easy to always smash your way through trouble. Ranked 11 in the world, Srikanth has been working hard on developing an all-round game, training at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.

The Academy is home to about half a dozen top-notch male badminton players who support, push, encourage each other to excel.

With the likes of Parupalli Kashyap (who missed out on Rio due to injury) and Guru Saidutt as sparring partners, Srikanth has been tested on home ground.

The task before Srikanth now is to put all those lessons into practise. Instructions given by Gopi Sir during those 4.30am classes when the squeak of the shoes on the Yonex court pierce the silent morning air at the Academy.

Srikanth's leap in the air and smash reminds you of Gopi in his playing days but the shot can also be his Achilles' heel. His rivals by now know that pushed to a corner, that is his bramhastra, the stinging weapon.

While rivals in the first few matches at Rio have not been able to neutralise his smash, Chinese badminton player Lin Dan who he meets next will be a difficult customer.

He is World Number 3, a two-time Olympic, five-time world champion and six-time All-England champion. And like Srikanth, "Super Dan" as he is called, packs a punch in his smashes too.

For Srikanth, it is important to play a more deceptive game rather than only rely on one arrow in his quiver.

Rallies are important and he has to adjust his game depending on the speed of the court and the drift of the air.

He will be tested on every aspect of his game against Lin Dan. Incidentally, Srikanth considers Gopichand and Lin Dan his two role models.

On Tuesday, one of them will plot to defeat the other.

The first two times that Srikanth faced Lin Dan, he was like a lamb slaughtered. As Srikanth said at that time, Dan did not let him play at all. But then in November 2014, the unexpected happened.

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Srikanth defeated Lin Dan at the 2014 China Open to become the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier title. But Rio will be a different shuttle game.

Lin Dan, who would be looking to make it a hat-trick of Olympic golds, would be better prepared for the Indian shuttler in the quarter-finals.

The run-up to Rio Olympics was a mixed bag for the 23-year-old Srikanth. While he won the 2016 Syed Modi International Championship, he lost in the semis of the Malaysian Masters.

If he had broken into the top eight in rankings, a date with Lin Dan could have waited till the semis.

But then this unassuming player is not one to get overawed once he steps on court.

Srikanth had told me once that rankings do not really matter and it is how you match up even against a better ranked player on a particular day that matters. Having upset fifth ranked Jorgenson of Denmark in the pre-quarters would have done his confidence a world of good.

Srikanth is more low-profile of the badminton players from India, with the spotlight usually on Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu. A shy person, Srikanth is at the cusp of history.

If he is able to breach the Great Wall of Lin Dan in Rio, it would be a giant leap for Indian badminton, besides putting India in contention to end its medal drought.

The biggest obstacle in that quest will be Srikanth himself. The boy from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, who now lives and trains in Hyderabad can be champion material one day.

But the next day, he can be as ordinary as a beginner, with a terrible off day.

It is this habit of being consistently inconsistent that would worry Gopi and India.