FIH Men's Pro League

[sameerph]

Let it be. World cup is over now. At least now they got up and started playing well. Harmanpreet is a different player than what I saw in world cup where he looked to have bunch of nerves. He is back to his best. Sukhjeet and Abhishek are very good forwards pouncing on opportunities. So, is young Karti Selvam. Manpreet is as always good and Sumit has also played well here. So too is Vivek Sagar Prasad in midfield. He scored a superb goal today of PC rebound.

For the record after being drawn 2-2 in regular time, we won in penalty shoot sudden death.

So, it makes it 4 out 4 wins against Germany and Australia. Do not think we have seen these kind of results against Germany and Australian in consecutive matches in years.

[Atithee]

We have the same thing going on in WIPL. Kaur and Varma are setting the scene afire, yet the Indian women haven’t won ANYTHING at world level. We just reserve our worst performance for high pressure competitions. I hope the trend reverses soon.

[arjun2761]

Looks like the World Cup failure led the introduction of new talent and they are showing up well here. Sometimes the new talent also inspires some of the younger veterans to be less complacent.

Excited about the future! I wonder if there is a lesson in there for our cricket team as well.

[Atithee]

The day we realize it’s a team game whose fortunes shouldn’t mirror performance of a single person, we will do better. Like SKY for T20 right now. We are far too reliant on single performer (or two). It will never yield the right results.

[ssp]

Our idiotic selections have held us back for a long time (not only in hockey). There have been so many promising players that have been lost due to the lunacy of the selection process.

Our other big issues are: crumbling under pressure (in key matches or in Q3 and particularly in Q4) and crazy decision making (dribbling needlessly in dangerous areas of the pitch or silly turnovers when an easy, safe pass is possible). This latter problem will be costly when Australia and Germany field their strongest teams.

I thought choosing David John as our coach was a stupid call, but he has made some really good changes (see my previous posts about Manpreet and Sumit in defence and Dilpreet in midfield). Our defensive set up looks good and the ability of all the forwards means that our counter attacks are going to result in shots on goals, PCs or even goals.

[prasen9]

The day we realize it’s a team game whose fortunes shouldn’t mirror performance of a single person, we will do better. Like SKY for T20 right now. We are far too reliant on single performer (or two). It will never yield the right results.

In T20Is, we have arguably the best batter and the best allrounder Hardik. Then, we have a very good batter, Kohli. The problem is the bowling. We have maybe a good bowler in Arshdeep. That is why we are world #1. But, that we are world #1 shows that it is extremely difficult to produce such super-stars. Nobody has done it. And, everyone, up until the #11 has to chip in and keep fighting. Also, to your other point, we need to be seeing what we can do to beat the teams who play fearless cricket using their brains (e.g., taking risks and hitting from the start to end), etc. in the semis and finals. England's flop in Bangladesh shows that that brand of cricket can be tamed by not giving them flat wickets. But, on the balance, it will result in more wins because the ICC will give flat wickets in ICC tournaments. So, although the five-some of SkAY, Kohli, Rahul, Rohit, and Gill are very good in T20Is, none of them is a ultra-modern blaster except Surya. And, we need a few more of those.

[PKBasu]

Finally India wins in sudden death. Why couldn't they do this in the World Cup?

Perhaps they didn't have enough practice with penalty shootouts. Good they are getting a lot of practice in the Pro League, which should stand them in good stead at the next World Cup and Olympics. (Also perhaps there is a bit more pressure in a knockout match, as Brazil found in the football World Cup shootout against Croatia).

[Saffron Lenin]

Indian men's hockey team climbs to No. 4 in FIH world rankings. After a strong show at FIH Pro League mini tournament, Indian men's hockey team climbed to number four in world rankings.

https://thebridge.in/hockey/indian-mens ... ium=social

[srini]

There is a saying "Seeing is believing" but in the context of Indian sports be it hockey, cricket or any team sport it is more of "Believing the unseen or rather what goes behind the scenes". I think some of the players could be under performing in crucial international matches due to petty politics to throw a coach out or trying to usurp captaincy etc. What else can explain such a turn around from a disastrous performance in world cup just a month ago to top standing in Pro league? That too without a permanent chief coach! May be Aussies and Germans are not playing their A game when they are not playing for World cup or Olympics? I don't know.

The only way to prevent petty politics and players underperforming is to have a domestic league which constantly produces reserve bench who can put the national side players on their toes. Hockey India should also invest in training and exposure programs for domestic coaches which can produce at least one great coach each for senior and junior national sides. After all how many elite hockey nations currently have a foreign coach? If we can't be self reliant in creating training programs that can produce a worthy coach out of a billion population then i feel we don't deserve to dream to be successful in that sport.