India ended their 10 years of wait to win the Asia Cup hockey title in recently concluded championship held in Bangladesh.The 2-1 win against Malaysia in the final ensures our spot in 2018 Hockey World cup.
The result was much closer than the match. We were the better team and the outcome should ideally have been 4-1. We played really well in the match and created numerous attacks towards Malaysian goalmouth. However, we were wasteful in the 3rd quarter in attacking and as a result India could not materialise plenty of goal scoring chances. We should have at least scored 2 more goals.
We were on the back foot for 5 minutes in the last quarter as expected but luckily our defence was compact, organised and was never realistically threatened. And this sealed the match in favour of us and a spot in 2018 world cup finals.
Here I make a short analysis of our team's strength and weaknesses at defensive to attacking level.
Defence
Both goalkeepers were very good. Not even a single goal which we conceded was due to their fault. Both of them played well in the entire tournament.
Our Defenders, as a whole, did well in this tournament but in my opinion, we are in shortage of quality centre-backs.
Both the youngsters (Varun and Dipsan) need at least 2 years of time to develop as an international player and represent team India.They are good enough for junior levels but yet to emerge for senior major tournaments. Varun has good scoop distribution but needs to work on his gameplay and movement. Dipsan has good tackling but lacks the physicality and a good scoop, a must in today's' hockey. They should take time and work hard to improve all these negatives and once they overcome these issues, they can be good assets for the senior national hockey team.
Amit Rohidas and Surender aren't just good enough for me.Both of them commit errors frequently in passing and tackling, neither do they have the physicality to play at centre back.Both of them don't have scoop or ball carrying skills from the deep defence which our other centre-backs like Harman, Rupinder and Raghunath have.Scoop and ball carrying skills are essential especially when the opposing team is playing the high pressing game.Both of them lack these skill.They don't carry the aura of a defender like Jugraj, Raghunath etc.When these centre backs move forward, you were confident that they won't lose the ball unlike Surender, Amit etc.We require at least one world class defender (Centre Back) for us to win a medal at major tournaments alongside Rupinder.If Raghunath is there, then it is fine but unfortunately, he is retired, so we need to either find or develop someone quickly before the next world cup.If Raghunath has retired, then Harmanpreet should be groomed and developed accordingly.Rest, I don't see and a centre-back who could be developed in a year's time.
MIDFIELD
Our Midfield did well in this tournament, With Sardara playing in the defence.However, I feel that work needs to be done to improve ball possession when it comes to the dying minutes of the matches. Suppose if we are a goal or two up, we should be able to keep time in our mind and play accordingly, just like how the Germans or Belgians do.We need to work on that important area.
Manpreet, Chinglensana, Uthappa had a decent tournament in my opinion.Satbir shouldn't be a National team player.Sumit, is okayish, needs to be worked on, at least a year before he becomes a stable player
ATTACK
Our attackers are among the best in the World.Sunil, Akash, Raman, Nikkin(when fit) are very good.Lalit on the other has been an instrumental for team India.He can certainly be tried in next tournaments.His game has significantly improved since the last time I watched him play.
However, GURJANT HAS BEEN THE FIND OF THE TOURNAMENT FOR ME.He is a much better alternative than Mandeep.Gurjant's speed, vision, finishing, physique, ball carrying skills, ball distributing skills are a level above Mandeep.Gurjant has a great link-up play.Something, Mandeep Singh lacks.I always liked Gurjant more than Mandeep because, with the way Modern Hockey is being played, a forward requires much more in his armoury than just be a decent finisher(Only Attribute Mandeep has).So, Gurjant for me best bet for Indian team than Mandeep.
So, our attack has now got good depth with Sunil, Akash, Raman, Nikkin, Talwinder, Lalit, Gurjant, Affan in the mix.
Winning Asia Cup and Asian Champions trophy undefeated, with at least 7-8 starting players missing in both our teams, shows our position and dominance at Asian level for sure.Nevertheless, our next target should be consistently winning medals at world events from now.
The team did a great job in this tournament regardless of missing 6-8 first team players.So, It is undoubtedly an enormous achievement by our boys.However, World Cup 2018 and Olympics 2020 should be our prime targets.The upcoming Hockey World League Finals will be a terrific test for us to assess where exactly we stand and what strategy we should follow for the World Cup next year.
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