India might be grappling with injuries in its forwardline but High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans today reposed faith on his young crop of strikers to score goals and help India win the upcoming Asia Cup and qualify for the World Cup hockey next year.
Star forward S V Sunil and strikers Akashdeep Singh, Danish Mujtaba and Gurwinder Singh Chandi -- all were ruled out of the Asia Cup because of injuries but Oltmans said he has players who can score goals for India.
"I don't think there would be too much pressure. We scored one penalty corner and five field goals today (against ONGC). We have guys who can score," said Oltmans, who has been appointed as the interim chief coach of the men's team after Michael Nobbs' ouster.
"Mandeep have scored a lot of goals in Hockey India League. Prabhdeep (Singh) is a goal scorer. Nithin (Thimmaiah) was the top-scorer in the nationals.
"Of course, they are young. But that doesn't mean they are not good. They are good and they have showed that. There will be a lot of young faces," he added.
Oltmans said he will take one match at a time in Asia Cup to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia from August 24 to September 1, a tournament which India need to win to qualify for 2014 World Cup in Hague, The Netherlands.
"Every tournament starts with one opponent and for us that is Oman. That is how a tournament should be approached. For me it is the first game that counts and at the moment we are working on our structures and way of playing. Of course we are making analysis of other teams which we might face in the tournament," he said.
