Indian men’s national hockey team Teams in the pool of death, which is always a “make or break” situation for teams, will have to put up a good performance at the start of their tournament to match or overtake their bronze medal finish in the last Tokyo Olympics. 2024 Paris Olympics Saturday against New Zealand.
A historic first-ever bronze medal since 40 years ago at Tokyo Olympic Games has raised expectations for Indian team. In Group B, its opponents include defending champion Belgium, powerhouses like Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Ireland. While Group A comprises Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain and South Africa including host nation France. The top four teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals.
To achieve top scores in India’s last two games they will need win their first three matches against New Zealand (July 24), Argentina (July 29) and Ireland (July 30) before facing tough opponents Belgium (August 1) and Australia (August 2).
Team India skippered by Harmanpreet Singh also looks set to give a fitting farewell to PR Sreejesh who has been known as Wall of Hockey India. This Olympics will mark the end of his career.
Among these sixteen members representing India there are eleven players who are already Olympic medallists. There will be five debutants during this season: Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjit Singh, Abhishek, Rajkumar Pal and Sanjay.
Both Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh have had fours Olympic Games together thus being bones of Indian hockey team during fifteen years. For Manpreet though, it may be his last game in the current outfit since India is entering into a rebuilding process .
While India ranked third as recently as four years ago but now slips down to seventh on world rankings which do not always depict how well a team has been performing in modern day hockey. A case in point is the World Cup that was co-hosted by Bhubaneswar and Rourkela in 2023. Where Indians fell to the Black Sticks, ranked tenth, in a shoot-out and exited in disappointment.
India head coach Craig Fulton fully understands the importance of the first three games and is focus on taking them one game at a time.
”This is as good a starting seven as there can be. No game at Olympics is easy. We are looking at the initial matches before our Belgium match to set the tempo. We will be taking it one match at a time,” Fulton told PTI.
Srijesh’s last international match may see him give his all for India to reach top posture. The backline will be led by captain Harmanpreet who will partner Amit Rohidas, Sumit, Jampanpreet and Sanjay.
The midfield will have Manpreet who plays along with Hardik Singh (vice-captain) and Vivek Sagar Prasad . As for scoring goals, this duty falls to Lalit Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Abhishek and Sukhjit.
Harmanpreet has been hailed as one of the world’s best drag flickers and with assistance from Rohidas and Sanjay he should ideally be India’s number one choice on penalty corners.
Under Fulton’s guidance the style changed towards offense-defense while still being flexible.
India had direct entry into Paris Olympics after winning gold medal in 2023 Asian Games coupled with commendable Olympic preparation results.
Indian team played well in International Hockey Federation Pro League held in February at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. They won twice against Spain, once against the Netherlands, two games against Australia and Ireland.
However, India could not dominate Australia their long-time rivals during the Test series in Perth in April. Although they fought hard in some of the matches, they lost all five.
India furthered their winning streak by taking two out of three games from Argentina’s professional league in Antwerp and London. But each time lost to stronger opponent Belgium, Germany or England while being very close to win them.
Harmanpreet says that he is aware of expectations from fans across the entire nation as captain for India.
“I mean after a long period of time Indian hockey team is going for Olympics as defending medalist. There is a lot expected from us back home and we have decided that we shall deliver.”
“I think the last few years have seen our team make tremendous progress while standing up to adversity. Our focus will be on changing the color of medals at 2024 Paris Olympic Games. And carrying Indian Flag high,” he told PTI before opening match.