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The Asia Cup Hockey tournament is going to begin in Ipoh, Malaysia from August 24th to September 1st. This is the last chance for India to qualify for the World Cup. The chances looks worse when we come to know that only one team from India or Pakistan can qualify from here. It means that either of these two will surely miss the ticket to WC for the first time since it’s inaugural year, 1971. From Asia, Korea is presently the only representative in the World Cup due to their higher ranking in FIH.
The Indian squad is marred with injuries and it has seriously crippled the attack. Akashdeep Singh, Gurinder Chandy, Danish Mujtaba and S V Sunil are nursing injuries. Their replacements, Ramandeep Singh and Nikin Thimmaiah, are making their forward line debut. Amit Rohitash is making an entry in the defence. Sreejesh will stand under the bar. Sardara Singh is leading the 18 member squad. From Raghunath, the vice captaincy has been handed over to P R Sreejesh.
The team, although confident, does not ignite much hope. The Forward line is relatively weak. Micheal Nobbs has been shown the door. Now the team is playing under a single power centre. Oltmans has been an outstanding player of his time. He was one of the pioneers of total hockey. His Zen like approach on the field is widely regarded and still carries the same image. How many lessons the Indian team has learnt, is to be judged. He has instilled high profile techniques into the team, which includes video recording, scanning of body, diet control and more theoretical-analytical classes. Whether interim coach Roelant Oltmans sail the ship to the coast in high tide, is to be seen.
India will open their campaign on August 24 against Oman. The following matches are against Korea on 26th and with Bangladesh on 28th. Their next opponent could be Pakistan or Malaysia.
At Rotterdam, the Indian team produced below par performance. They were expected to be qualified from there but could manage only a single win in the whole competition, and that too against minnows France. Overall, they finished 6th. It’s only their bad luck that all the teams above them got qualified from there, due to their rankings.
The same happened with Pakistan and Malaysia at Johar Bahru. Pakistan was playing with a lot of flair until the last two matches, which cost them a spot in the WC. Malaysia couldn’t capitalize the support of noisy, home crowd filled stadium.
As long as India’s chances are concerned, a lot will depend on Drag flicker Raghunath since PC conversion is the key for modern day hockey. The strength of the forward line has been depleted and young talented shoulders of Mandeep will have to lift extra load. Sreejesh will have to prove the image of ‘Rock of Gibraltor’. Sardara has to emerge in tje avatar of ‘Iniesta’ for the team and produce some old magic of accurate goal bound passes again and again for India.
All in all, the road is very rocky and slippery. Every team in the competition is dying to be part of the World Cup next year. Particularly, both India and Pakistan will never want to add this ugly chapter of disqualification in their rich history of Hockey. Malaysia is a familiar territory for ‘Men in Blues’. Despite limitations, the Indian team should be hopeful. They can draw inspiration from the Junior girls squad, if they like.
