Can a steadily improving Team India claim the Hockey World Cup title?

Indian hockey has been on the upswing in the last few years. Now, a home World Cup gives the national team a chance to go from unpredictable challengers to assured contenders

One thing that has become amply evident about international hockey in recent years is the fact that the sport is more frantic, technically driven and fitness-based than ever before. India struggled to live with the sheer pace of the game for the longest time: routinely chasing shadows against counterparts from Europe and Australia technically and physically far superior to them.

More recently, India, at the cost of looking slightly unattractive, have managed to bridge the gap — they are now ranked fifth in the world, higher than Germany, England and Spain. That is genuinely something to shout about. Four years ago at the World Cup, the team finished second from bottom in their group; two priors earlier, at the 2012 London Olympics, the outcome was fully catastrophic: India finished winless and bottom of their pool.

Proof of a turnaround has been around for a while now. In early July, India surprised Australia in the final of the Champions Trophy, alternatingly thwarting them with dogged defending and then rattling them with a rare quickness on the counter. It was a pity that India disintegrated in the shootout — for once they had the mighty Aussies by the throat, but failed to choke them off.

The retired Sardar Singh will be missed for his midfield imagination and quiet leadership (Photo: Reuters)

The months that have followed the missed chance against Australia haven’t quite hit the heights that some would have expected. India could only finish third at the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang — a tournament they were widely, and quite rightly, tipped to win. They were declared joint-winners of the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat last month; but then a continental tourney can hardly be categorised — the Indonesian debacle notwithstanding — as a stern test for a side that has, for some time at least, been the most dominant in Asia.

And as is almost always the case with Indian hockey, a set of under-par performances on the pitch has been accompanied by issues off it. A marquee player in Sardar Singh has called time on a long, glittering career amid suggestions of unfair treatment by foreign members of the coaching staff; and the selectors have come in for criticism for excluding a bunch of experienced players ahead of the World Cup that gets underway in Bhubaneswar on November 28.

Where that leaves the Indian team, which only months ago looked set to break free from its middling recent past and advance to a higher plane, is anybody’s guess.

For starters, playing at home is a major advantage. Sardar, also a former captain, has spoken about drawing strength from the support of the crowd. The Kalinga Stadium, a popular venue for international games that has the audience seated in close proximity to the turf, does provide the players with a throbbing energy that is nothing less than uplifting. 

For over a decade, it was Sardar who offered such encouragement on the field, helping elevate his team’s play with quiet leadership and mesmerising stick work in midfield. “Sardar was such a vital player for so many years. But now that he’s gone, we must work with what we have,” says former India drag-flicker Sandeep Singh.

In that respect, India has been lucky with the way Manpreet Singh, a player very much in the same mould as Sardar, has developed. Manpreet, who will be captain in Bhubaneswar, is a Swiss-knife of a player, one who can create, distribute, block and score. “This guy is the Virat Kohli of Indian hockey. He can take the team places,” feels Sandeep. 

The exclusion of Rupinder exacerbates a recurrent problem with India: penalty corner conversions (Photo: Reuters)

Manpreet’s offensive forays in recent months have only been made possible by the presence of Chinglensana Singh behind him, a tenacious Manipuri blessed with rapid bursts of speed and seemingly three lungs. The 26-year-old has become a mainstay of sorts over the last year, smartly screening the defence and supplying plenty of solidity in the middle. His importance is only magnified by the fact that this Indian squad is still a largely inexperienced one; steady heads like Chinglensana are of enormous significance.

“In the Champions Trophy, India had the perfect combination. The seniors lent the balance that was needed. In big tournaments, you need to work in tandem,” says former India coach Joaquim Carvalho. 

In a refreshing change, the selectors have prioritised fitness over reputation. Forwards S V Sunil and Ramandeep Singh have both been omitted after failing to fully recover from injuries, and drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh, once an automatic choice, has been left out on the back on patchy form; the 28-year-old is also seen as someone prone to regularly picking up knocks.

The exclusion of Rupinder, who has almost 200 international caps, further exacerbates a recurrent problem with this Indian side: penalty corner conversions. For quite long now, India have looked feeble from short corners, lacking the finesse to execute variations, or the consistency to bang in goals directly. Harmanpreet Singh, India’s first choice when it comes to drag flicks, has shone only sporadically. His two understudies, Varun Kumar and Amit Rohidas, are, well, just understudies who are yet to really make a mark at this level.

“We have been winning so many penalty corners, but converting very few. At this level, we have to do better,” says former captain Viren Rasquinha.

This one inadequacy is unlikely to trouble India in the group stage at least, where the hosts have been pooled with South Africa, Canada and Belgium. Belgium is the highest-ranked team in the group and among the favourites for the title, but India will draw considerable confidence from the fact that they have been able to get the better of their European opponents on two occasions in the last year. As Manpreet has repeatedly stated in the past few days, topping their pool and qualifying for the quarter-finals must be target number one — any degree of complacency against South Africa and Canada is simply not an option. Not for a team that has improved so marvellously over the last two years, and helped rekindle excitement for a sport that had been swiftly slipping away from the Indian public’s consciousness.

Having said that, intense expectations must be tempered with a sober acceptance of reality. India is still not on the same level as the Aussies or the Dutch, and you would be an incredibly adventurous man to put your money on the home team going all the way. At the same time, a home World Cup presents India with a glorious opportunity to conquer a decades-old inferiority and reinstate itself as one of the true elites, a chance to turn the afterburners on and go from unpredictable challengers to assured contenders. They might have gotten used to the game’s pace, but now might not be such a bad time to, once again, set it for the others.