Paris. If the Indian men’s hockey team has to perform better than the bronze medal of the last Olympics, then it will have to give its best performance in the ‘group of death’ and move forward. The Indian team will face New Zealand on Saturday in its first match of the group stage. The Indian team ended the wait of 41 years by winning the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics and since then a lot is expected from it. This was an important achievement for Indian hockey which had won eight gold medals in the Olympics before this. After the performance of the last Olympics, the Indian team is expected to win medals again but it will not be easy.
The Indian team has been placed in Pool B along with defending champions Belgium, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Ireland and hence it is also being called the group of death. Pool A includes Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, South Africa and hosts France. Four teams from each pool will reach the quarter-finals. The first three matches against New Zealand, Argentina (on July 29) and Ireland (July 30) are very important for India because after this it will face strong teams like Belgium (August 1) and Australia (August 2). It would like to win the first three matches and enter the last two matches of the pool stage with full confidence.
This competition will give the Harmanpreet Singh-led team a chance to give a grand farewell to ‘Indian Hockey Wall’ goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who has announced his retirement after these games. India’s 16-member team has 11 Olympic medalists while Harmanpreet Singh, Sukhjit Singh, Abhishek, Rajkumar Pal and Sanjay are making their Olympic debut. This will be the fourth Olympics for Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh. India has slipped from third to seventh in the world rankings in the recent past, but rankings do not matter much in a big competition like the Olympics. Indian coach Craig Fulton understands the importance of the first three matches and is following a strategy of focusing on one match at a time.
He said, “We have got a good pool. No match is easy in the Olympics. We are focusing on the first match to get into rhythm before facing Belgium and Australia. We are focusing on one match at a time.” Sreejesh, who is playing the last international tournament of his career, is expected to leave no stone unturned on the goal. Captain Harmanpreet, Amit Rohidas, Sumit as well as Jarmanpreet and Sanjay will handle the responsibility of the defense. Manpreet, vice-captain Hardik Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad will be the main link in the midfield, while Lalit Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Abhishek and Sukhjeet will have to take the responsibility of scoring goals. Harmanpreet, one of the best dragflickers in the world, will have to handle the important responsibility of converting penalty corners into goals. His performance in this department will be very important for India. In this, he will also get the support of Rohidas and Sanjay.
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