Ahead of the Hockey World League (HWL) Finals in Raipur, India were dealt an injury setback in the form of striker Lalit Upadhayay, but chief coach Roelant Oltmans feels he has sufficient arsenal at his disposal to surprise world's top teams in the tournament.
Lalit, a promising centre who was initially named in the 18-member squad for the tournament, has been ruled out after suffering a hairline fracture during the final phase of India's preparatory camp in Bangalore.
Lalit has been replaced by young Mohd Amir Khan in the team.
"We had a good preparatory camp in Bangalore. Everything went off smoothly and fine. The only blemish was the injury to Lalit. He sustained a hairline fracture in the last week of our camp in Bangalore and is out of the tournament. Mohd Amir Khan will replace him in the squad," Oltmans, who is also the High Performance Director of India hockey, told PTI from Raipur.
Besides Lalit, another striker Nikkin Thimmaiah was also dropped from the squad because of a shoulder injury which he sustained during the last tour to New Zealand.
"We will also be missing Nikkin. He sustained a shoulder injury during the New Zealand tour and is likely to be operated soon. He will be out for at least six weeks.
"But we are making progress day by day and we have got a mix of young and experienced players in the side to take on top teams like Australia, Germany and The Netherlands," Oltmans said.
Oltmans, a master tactician and one of the renowned hockey coaches of the world, feels the preceding three-Test series against Australia, starting tomorrow in Raipur will provide him a perfect picture about his wards ahead of the high-profile tournament.
"Australia is the no. 1 team in the world. They are the fittest and the most attacking team in the world and to play three Tests against them will definitely test our preparation and give us an idea where we lack," the Dutchman said.
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India continued in the same vein after the change of ends and secured their third penalty corner in the 48th minute but skipper Harjeet Singh failed to stop the injection but recovered enough to take a shot which was saved Belgium goalkeeper van Doren.
The hosts kept up the pressure on the Belgian defence and in the 60th minute an unmarked Gurjant came close to registering his second goal of the match from an open chance but his march was stopped by an onrushing Belgian custodian van Doren who did enough to get his stick on the ball to avert the danger.
Penalty corner conversion has been India's only bane in the tournament and it continued to be so as the hosts wasted two more back-to-back set pieces in the final 10 minutes of the game.
With nothing to lose, Belgium gave their all in the final few minutes and managed to secure two consecutive penalty corners just 20 seconds from the final hooter, the second of which was converted by Van Bockrijck to give the something to cheer about for the Red Cougars.
But despite the defeat in the summit clash, the Belgians also created a history in their own way by finishing on the podium for the first time in the history of the tournament.
