The Indian Men’s Hockey team are making final adjustments as they will take on New Zealand in the new season of the FIH Hockey Pro League in a few days. Manpreet Singh and company have been working very hard over the months to improve and all that will be in test when they take on New Zealand at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
This will be their first game after the Commonwealth Games and while they won the silver medal in Birmingham, that 7-0 defeat against Australia poured cold water on all their excitement earlier this year. That defeat will be on the back of their minds when they take the field again.
Ahead of the new season of FIH Hockey Pro League, India’s head coach Graham Reid was asked about that Commonwealth Games final defeat against Australia and he clearly shared how losing that way was a shocker. He agreed that some of his men were intimidated and were playing on such a big stage for the first time.
“No one wants to lose in that fashion and especially to Australia again. I think we were a bit intimidated. Another fact is that the lot had not won a medal in the previous Commonwealth Games. Also, it was a big occasion for a couple of them.”
The Indian do have a chance to beat the Australians as they will visit Down Under for a 5 match Test series in November-December and there they will look to gain a lot of experience, knowledge and be better players for the upcoming tournaments. Reid feels it will be a very enriching experience for the Men in Blue.
“Want to make sure that the Australian trip is fruitful. Also want to have a session or two with the state teams so that the Indian players can have first-hand experience of how to go about it,” Reid added.
India’s vice captain Harmanpreet Singh has been in sensational touch as he won the FIH Men’s Player of the Year for the second time running and Reid has acknowledged the drag flicker time and again. He recently compared him with Australian great Jamie Dwyer and shared how the Indian feel comfortable when Harmanpreet Singh has the ball just like the Australians felt when jamie had the ball. Speaking about Harmanpreet Singh, Reid shared, “You can call it the Jamie factor. When I was with the Australian team, the players would at times give the ball to Jamie (Dwyer) and just relax. You have to be always careful of that when one person goes on to dominate one group,” Reid said before further adding, “I’m very aware of it. Need to make sure he (Harmanpreet) keeps the ball moving. We have got Jugraj (Singh) in for that (penalty corners), and we have also been trying to develop Jarmanpreet (Singh) for the same.”
The Indian Men’s Hockey team will be looking to get as much match practice that they can get ahead of the upcoming Hockey World Cup which India will host in January next year in Bhubaneswar and Roukela. Whether the Men in Blue will secure a medal at the World Cup or not remains to be seen but they have created history many times in the last few years with the Olympic bronze followed by the Commonwealth games silver. With home support present at the World Cup they will be looking to make the most out of it.
