Neubauer Gorilla rubber only did not do the magic en route to Ayhika Mukherjee's historic triumph against Wold's number one ranked Sun Yingsha in the recently-concluded World Team Championship in Busan. 

Ayhika meant this. She when asked explained, “How can you defeat World’s number one by using the anti-spin rubber only? Sun Yingsha looked embarrassed playing against my Gorilla rubber initially in the match. It was just a matter of time for her to adjust with this deceptive rubber.”

Ayhika added, “I feel I was able to ensure this historic triumph mainly due to my consistent forehand attacks. I could offer incisive and accurate forehand top-spins consistently. Yingsha might have not expected such consistency in my aggression.” 

Ayhika has acquaintance with Gorilla Rubber for the last 17 years when she installed Gorilla Rubber on her backhand during the junior national championship at Chennai. 

Her childhood mentor, Mihir Ghosh revealed, "It was the 2007 national championship in Chennai. After watching one leading girl playing with that rubber Ayhika's mother and I, both insisted on putting in Gorilla rubber. It was pimpled rubber that time. Later pimples were banned and Gorilla rubber was transformed into plain rubber. I can remember Ayhika after starting training with the rubber won a major state ranking competition, Kasimbajar Open in the very next year." 

Ayhika was under the guidance of Mihir Ghosh for 16 years. But Ghosh does not want to mean that only using Gorilla rubber could do the magic. “After installing it on her backhand in 2007, Ayhika spent tireless days and months to master the deceptive rubber.” 

"It is extremely difficult to control the deceptive rubber. Ayhika deserves the whole credit for mastering the trickiness of the rubber. In addition, her game has been smarter, especially in her forehand display,” added Ghosh.

However, Ghosh who recently received the Bengal Excellence award is planning to bring Gorilla rubber again at his new academy in Naihati. He asserted, “I have plans to bring this rubber for the new students of my academy. But if the respective paddler is not cerebral then this rubber will be tough to play. Still, inspired by Ayhika's success with the rubber I have plans to introduce it among the new students." 

Mihir Ghosh has not shifted from his mission. His manufacturing of quality table players of future has already started taking off with new under-13 national champion Ahana Roy. 

Along with Ahana, Mihir Ghosh Table Tennis Academy has also produced potential paddlers like Sreshtha Chakrabarty, and Nandini Saha who have already been selected by the Go Sports Foundation. 

Ahana and Nandini are likely to be selected by Raman High-Performance Centre in Chennai soon. Their performance in the previous national championship in Indore helped them to get selected at Raman High-Performance Centre.