India ended a 41-year long Olympic medal drought in men’s hockey in Tokyo and now faces a bigger challenge of breaking a long drought of winning medals at two consecutive Games. India won their last medals at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games – bronze medals in Mexico and Munich.

India is the most successful country in Olympic hockey, having won six gold medals in a row. However, those medals came four decades ago and the world of hockey has changed a lot since then and winning back-to-back medals is no longer that easy.

India will face a big challenge when they step onto the synthetic turf at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium for the 12-team men’s hockey competition.

India are in the same group as Ireland in Pool B along with defending champions Belgium, former champions Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, while Pool A features the Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain, hosts France and African champions South Africa.

The first target for the Indian men will be to finish in the top four of their group to qualify for the quarter-finals. The real challenge will begin after that.

Preparations for India were quite disappointing, especially the Test series in Australia and the eight Pro League matches in Antwerp and London. India lost most of these matches, resulting in the team finishing seventh out of nine teams in the Pro League. This resulted in India dropping from the top five to seventh in the world in the FIH Rankings.

For the Paris Olympics, the selection committee comprising Dr. RP Singh, Balwinder Singh, Mohd Riaz, MM Somaya, Sardar Singh and BP Govinda selected an experienced team with 11 players who were in the bronze medal-winning team in Tokyo.

Two of them, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh, who was the team captain in Tokyo, will be playing in their fourth Olympic Games while five players (Jarmanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Raj Kumar Pal, Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh) will be playing for the first time.

The experience of the Indian convoy is an advantage for them:

The core of the 16-man squad, 11 of whom are from Tokyo, has the experience to cope with the challenges in Paris.

However, the issue may not be that easy as the team has undergone a transformation under head coach Craig Fulton – the approach has changed from an attacking to a defensive mindset. India has always believed in attacking with an aggressive Asian style of hockey.

Experts believe that a team should have a strong defense where everyone from forwards to defenders contribute to blocking the opposing team’s attack in their own half. However, the total defense approach may not be suitable for players whose mentality is to be aggressive.

India will begin their campaign against New Zealand in their opening match on July 27. Besides this match, the match against Ireland will be crucial as winning both these matches will at least ensure that the teams finish fourth in their group and qualify for the quarter-finals.

In other matches, India will face Argentina on July 29, face Ireland the next day, face defending champions Belgium on August 1 and face former champions Australia on August 2.

Groupings:

Pool A: Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, France, South Africa

Group B: Belgium, India, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Ireland.

Published: Sunday, July 21, 2024, 09:13 PM