New Delhi, March 6 -- A Paralympic gold. Multiple World Championship titles. Two gold medals at the Asian Para Games. The World No.1 crown. Pramod Bhagat had seen it all.

Yet, September 2025 had something different in store for the Indian shuttler.

He was playing his first tournament after serving out an 18-month ban for breaching anti-doping regulations. Making the final of the China Para Badminton International may have been satisfactory on another day, but Bhagat was looking to prove a point. To himself. To reclaim his place among the best.

Only now, he had lost the first game to Indonesia's Muhammad Al Imran-around 15 years his junior, who had debuted on the international circuit months earlier. There were doubts and questions alik...