India tour to Australia - October 30-November 10, 2014

[sameerph]

21 member team for the Australia tour is announced.

Goalkeepers: P.R. Sreejesh, Harjot Singh;

defenders: Gurbaj Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, V.R. Raghunath, Birendra Lakra, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Gurjinder Singh, Harbir Singh Sandhu;

midfielders: Manpreet Singh, S.K. Uthappa, Sardar Singh, Dharamvir Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Satbir Singh;

forwards: Nikkin Thimmaiah, S.V. Sunil, Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Upadhyay.

Only 1 omission from the Asiad squad with Chingalseena Singh dropped. I think that is good omission. There are 6 additions to the Asiad squad - GK Harjot Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Harbir Singh Sandhu, Satbir Singh, Mandeep and Lalit Upadhyay.

I have seen Lalit play and he is talented youngster. Mandeep had emerged as an opportunistic striker early on but had faded away later. He gets another chance. Not sure about the quality of others ( Harbir, Satbir,Gurjinder and Harjot.). SSP can comment on those. Would have loved to see some of the players from the team that won Sultan Johor cup recently given a chance.

[ssp]

Lalit is a good prospect. He has lovely skills but needs to 'beef up' to international standards. Glad to see him back.

None of the newcomers really inspire any confidence in me. I'm ok with Harjot as 2nd keeper and Harbir is a reasonable choice, but I don't rate Uthappa at all. Watch how easily he loses the ball because of his upright style. He is too weak on the ball as are Mandeep and Akashdeep. All these guys lose the ball or mis trap maddeningly and they have shown very little improvement despite being in the senior set up for 2-3 years. Gurjinder is a liability in defence. Mad selection. Haven't seen anything outstanding from Satbir.

Then we still have Ragunath and Danish who have not progressed as much as they should have, given that they have been in the squad for 3-4 years.

I feel some of the U21s are ready to step up. Gurinder, Dipsan Tirkey, Harmanpreet, Harjit and Arman Querishi could have been given a chance. Don't forget we have Vikas Pillay and Vikram Kanth who could strengthen the midfield. Affan Youssuf is a better bet than Mandeep. Slightly disappointed to see Chandi dropped. But at last Chinglensana is out.

[sameerph]

Thanks,SSP. So, the changes do not appear to be too inspiring. Hope 1 or 2 of those selected show some improvement to become part of the team for champions trophy.

[ssp]

Some more insight from one of the selectors:

http://suhridsports.blogspot.in/2014/10 ... ot-in.html

I can't work out why Nitin Thimmiah is the selectors plans. Affan is injured and Yuvraj Walmiki seems to be out permanently.

Why does it take the selectors so long to weed out the duds? In the Australia tour squad, we will be handicapped by: Ragunath, Gurjinder, Danish, Uthappa, Akasheep and Mandeep (& possibly Satbir). We have seen all of these guys for 2-3-4 yrs with little or no improvement in their performances. This tour is an ideal opportunity to try new players. I would have replaced the 1st four 'duds' mentioned above with: Gurinder, Harmanpreet (or Dipsan Tirkey), Vikas Pillay and Harjit. Regarding the forwards, we seem to be struggling for alternatives due to injuries, but maybe Arman Qureshi or Imran Khan should have been selected.

[sameerph]

We lost to Australia 0-4 today in the first test match. Did not watch the match but looks a familiar tale against Aussies.

[ssp]

The torture can be witnessed on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z0oq36Y ... yYBNNLIf3g

Too many errors at both ends of the pitch. Forwards continually fumble and we are too lax at the back. Same old culprits- Uthappa, Ragunath, Akashdeep, Gurjinder. Today, Nikkin kept mis trapping and Dharamvir too reverted to his old self.

I suspect the Aussies have more in reserve. They made a fair few errors, which they can sort out. We didn't seem to have enough numbers in attack, so I can't see us scoring too many in this series.

[ankit1407]

We won the second match 2-1, OMG this can't be true.....

[ssp]

What a beautiful surprise. After yesterday's match I thought the Aussies would move up a gear and we would be blown away.
Just imagine what Walsh could do with our best players

[sameerph]

Wow, a win over Australia in Australia. !!! Probably our first win over Australia in a competitive match in many years.

[sameerph]

Full replay of today's match is available here -

India vs. Australia

Watched both the Indian goals and both came off counterattacking moves by us while most of the Australians were attacking in our half. Great long pass by Sardara for Ramandeep who finished it well for first goal and then a brilliant individual run by Sunil ending with a powerful reverse hit into goal.

[prashanthm]

WOW! What a long pass by Sardara and what a run by Sunil........

[ssp]

Much improved performance and brilliant result.
Interesting to hear the commentator and Mark Knowles comments about the bad habits of our players- not marking properly (standing away from an opposition attacker whilst the Aussies have been drilled to get right on top of the player they are marking) and risky decisions at the back. The latter has cost us many, many goals especially against the intense Aussie press. Lots of time our defenders lost possession by trying to dribble the ball out when they were surrounded, rather than get a foul or clear it to the other end. Why do we keep doing this? Against a full strength Aussie team we would have been punished mercilessly.

So where did the improvements come from today? I think we passed it quicker and there were more passing options (off the ball movement was better). Making and trapping was better and we didn't have the crazy tackles and errors of yesterday that gifted away PCs.

Sunil's goal was incredible (reminded me of Shahbaz's electric run in the 1994 WC match against Australia). We created much more than yesterday's game and this is very encouraging sign. Let's hope for similar performances in the remaining 2 games. Consistency has long been a big problem for our teams. This may not be the strongest Aussie team, but we have been hammered by all their teams in the past.

We still have maddening issues with our forwards. Most of them just can't trap the ball cleanly (even on the open side of the stick- reverse side is a guaranteed mis tap). Mandeep is too weak. He has a habit shielding the ball on the left flank is always pulled up in international matches. Ramandeep also messes up too often. There was no Akashdeep or Dharamvir (these 2 didn't have their best games yesterday). Midfield is still not to my liking. Uthappa and Satbir are not at the level we need to compete against top quality international teams. I really hope we try Harjeet Singh and Vikas Pillay for the CT. Or bring in Harmanpreet or Gurinder or Dipsn Tirkey and move Birendra into midfield.

[jayakris]

I guess surprises do happen. I just simply don't remember us beating Australia. Not sure when it happened last (may be against a really substandard team at Azlan or something?)....

[PKBasu]

I think the last time we beat Australia at hockey was in the Munich Olympics of 1972!

I certainly don't remember any wins over them since. Even at the Esanda tournament in 1982, where we beat Pakistan 2-1 (a few weeks after the humiliation in the Asiad final in New Delhi), we finished second to Australia -- losing to the latter in the final. That year we got a bronze at the Champions Trophy but lost to Australia there too.

So it is truly amazing that we have beaten Australia 2-1 -- especially after the 0-4 thrashing in the first match (which is what normally happens when India plays Australia at field hockey)!

[ssp]

PKB, we beat them in 78 WC and also a couple of times in CT (96 when they had a weakened team & 2002). I remember a win before the 2000 Olympics and in 2003 (both in 4 nation tournaments in Australia). There was another one in 2010 Aslan Shah Cup, but generally we have been hammered by them.

Yesterday's win is excellent news, but we have to remember that the Aussies have been experimenting and blooding in youngsters. They are missing 4/5 key players (Ciriello, Knowles, Govers, Turner etc). However, their newcomers have the same mentality and physical prowess. The main differences are: that they don't quite have the same intensity when pressing the opposition ball carrier (so there are far fewer dangerous turnovers), PCs conversions are less effective, and they tend to make more mistakes in trapping or in front of goal.

I still think we would lose by 3/4 (or more) against their full side, but then so would most international teams. There is no team that can handle the Aussies. They are brilliant in attack and defence.

We can argue, that this isn't our best team either (!!), but we never seem to select the best players....ever. Our main worry should be keeping Walsh for the next few years. We badly need 3/4 real quality players to replace the weakest ones and need to really raise our defensive play to become genuinely competitive with the Aussies.