After winning two back-to-back matches with huge margins, the Indian junior men's hockey team is looking confident to face a tough test against Australia in its fifth and final league match of the 4th Sultan of Johor Cup, here tomorrow.
Losing only to Great Britain in its four outings so far, the India U-21 team put up a strong show against Pakistan and Malaysia respectively. The Harjeet Singh-led team thrashed arch-rivals Pakistan 6-0 and then outplayed the hosts 4-2 to brighten their chances of booking a final berth.
Facing the Aussies in the last league match, Indian defenders Hermanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar will play key roles in tomorrow's match.
Both Hermanpreet and Varun not only displayed their fast responsive attacks, but also showcased acute penalty conversion skills in recent matches, which helped Team India to score goals in first few minutes of the matches.
Hermanpreet's hat-trick against hosts Malaysia will surely be a motivational factor for the team against the Kangaroos.
Also showcasing great skills in the previous outings, forwards Parvinder Singh and Armaan Qureshi kept creating opportunities with their attacking moves through-out the matches, which helped their team to maintain pressure on the opponents. In tomorrow's match, both Parvinder and Armaan will surely look for more more aggression and continue their good play.
Also, midfielder and captain Harjeet's skill and experience will play an important role, who successfully helped his team to maintain good ball possession and create maximum chances for their forwards to score goals.
Commenting on tomorrow's match against Australia, coach Harendra Singh said, "Till now, we have successfully implemented strategies on the field and materialised maximum opportunities into goals. Australia is a tough team and it's not easy to sneak into their den, but the best part is our boys are in great form and they have showed their metal in the previous matches. Tomorrow's game will be more tactful and we know how we want to tackle the Aussies. As a single unit, we are very much confident and looking forward to tomorrow's match.
