He was their first teacher and Mihir Ghosh feels both his students Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee made the country proud with the historic bronze medal in the doubles at Hangzhou Asian Games on Monday. 

Ghosh who groomed both his students at the beginning of their career explained, "The second game turned out the key factor. If Sutirtha and Ayhika were able to take a 2-0 lead then the story could have been different."

Ghosh received phone calls from Sutirtha after they stunned the Chinese pair in the quarterfinal. Ghosh revealed, “I encouraged her saying they could script new history even by reaching the final and winning the gold medal ultimately.”

Simultaneously, Ghosh asserted, “They did not look complacent at all. I watched the match minutely. They failed to combat the variations in attack offered by the Koreans. Chinese pair did not have variation in their game. They continuously tried to attack Sutirtha and Ayhika and that helped them to make a variety of blocks with pimpled rubbers. But Koreans played according to the character of the pimpled rubbers.”

Ghosh believes this bronze will give them a big boost ahead of upcoming international competitions and at the same time, the TTFI should also think of sending the country’s potential paddlers abroad on more exposure trips.