I want to be the Virat Kohli of Indian badminton: Lakshya Sen

Among several other athletes who won medals for India at the Paris Olympics 2024, Lakshya Sen has also managed to garner much praise despite losing the semifinals. The badminton player was hailed for his sheer resilience in winning five consecutive games to reach the semis. He eventually lost to Danish shuttler, Viktor Axelsen. As the nation is commending his performance, Lakshya has quipped that he wants to be the Virat Kohli of the Indian badminton. 

The 23-year-old also exchanged blows against Malaysia’s, Lee Zii Jia in the Bronze Medal game. The Almora-born won the first game but lost in the end to bow out of the tournament. Lakshya’s no-look reverse backhand shot in one of his games is widely touted as the equivalent of Virat Kohli’s famous down the ground propel against Haris Rauf. The shuttler acknowledged that comparison and quipped ‘why not.’

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"Lakshya Sen did an 18.5 of Virat Kohli, who played a crazy shot. So this was the badminton equivalent, people are calling you the Virat Kohli of badminton, it's cool to be called Virat Kohli of any field, would you take that compliment?" asked Ranveer Allahabadia on his YouTube channel.

"Why not, I mean, at the same time he has done a lot for Indian cricket, and yes I want to be the Virat Kohli of Indian badminton in the coming years," stated Sen.

After a tiring Olympics 2024 season, Lakshya will head to Salzburg's Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre to work on his fitness and endurance. He will be back in action in September and prior to this, the youngster will undergo fitness training in Austria for one week.