India’s dream of a Hockey Test Series Victory against Australia in Australia after a decade goes in vain as they have lost all 3 out of the 5 games played so far.
We, the fans of the Indian Hockey were hoping for a good competitive series. But, apart from the 3rd match, it was a pretty one sided affair in favour of the home side. As one can guess from the Scoreline itself, 5-1 , 4-2 and 2-1 is the margin of winning goals for the Kangaroos in the 3 games played respectively.
What Went Wrong?
First and Foremost, to address the elephant in the room, let’s try and analyse of what went wrong for the Men in Blue in these 3 games and what could have been improved.
To Start with, the Most important point has to be PC Conversion. The fact that India concedes more PCs is very worrying. Thanks to PR Sreejesh and the Defence Line, we manage to get away with it without facing much of trouble.
But it has to improve.
And on the other hand, we are too much depending on PCs to score goals. Which makes Captain Harmanpreet Singh very crucial.
But in my humble opinion, Craig Fulton should give utmost freedom to players like Mandeep, Lalit Upadhyay and Hardik Singh to go and try for Field Goals instead of just attempting for the Penalties.
Like what we saw in the 3rd game, India’s Lone Goal by Jugraj Singh was a PC Goal.
Talking about Defence, I feel again too much reliance on PR Sreejesh isn’t good for the Team. Krishan Pathak, the other Goalkeeper need to improve quite a lot as far as his defensive skills are concerned.
To expect him to defend like Sreejesh won’t be fair with him, but the improvement has to be seen as soon as possible. Otherwise, another Young GK Suraj Karkera is still searching for the opportunity.
Next aspect is Fitness in the field. Definitely our fitness is Top Notch, but still against the Kangaroos, we can’t relax after we’re in lead, especially in the Midfield.
What To Expect Now?
As more or less this Team will be playing at the Paris Olympics, Coach Craig Fulton needs to give ample chances to all players. After having already lost the series, it makes sense to experiment a bit in the remaining 2 games.
I’m of the opinion that Harmanpreet and Sreejesh should take rest, atleast for the next match. It’ll help us analyse and we’ll be able to get an idea about the grit the youngsters have.
The next match of the Series will be played at Perth on Friday, 12th of April.
It’ll be live on Jio Cinema from 3 PM IST.
