Members of the France badminton team celebrate their win in the Thomas Cup semi-finals over India. (Screengrab via BWF YouTube) It was a straightforward loss of three singles from India to France’s top 3, all ranked in Top 20. But Frenchman Alex Lanier believed it was deep strategy that India was using to confuse France . Thomas Cups can get wild, like that. France ended up evicting Indonesia, Japan and India in succession to become first non-Denmark European team to make Thomas Cup finals since England in 1984. Lanier, World No 10, had prepared and strategised for Ayush Shetty. But India decided to rest Lakshya Sen in first singles. Which meant a very docile Kidambi Srikanth fetched up to play second singles, and was beaten 21-16, 21-18 not before giving the Frenchman a few rallies to ponder over, as his deception cut into the pace and tempo of Lanier. Lanier though reckoned the move was aimed at boggling the French.…