A few minutes after the Indian men lost to Canada to finish sixth at the Hockey World League Semifinals, coach Roelant Oltmans slammed the assembled media for questioning the team’s disappointing run in the tournament.
“People in India and you media should understand. Every time these guys are losing, you are writing negative. Look at the process, and be sure that it is coming... Probably you will never understand what I am trying to say, and I don’t care about it,” he snapped.
It would be easy to blame the coach for losing his cool and trying to defend a below-par performance from the team, barring the two huge wins against an ordinary Pakistan. Purely in terms of result, it was a tournament to forget.
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Not the best squad
Barring the Netherlands, all other teams it faced were ranked below and a semifinal spot was the least that was expected. It would be easy to say that it wasn’t the best squad, but the players out there were not exactly greenhorns. Ironically, the newcomers in the side — Sumit and Harjeet Singh — had decent performances in the midfield.
The tournament itself was more of a testing ground for Oltmans. In terms of rewards, it held little importance for the side. The London event was a qualifier for both the HWL Finals later this year and the 2018 World Cup and India, as the host for both, is already qualified.
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The others were fighting for a ticket to both. “Somewhere deep, far away, you know you have already qualified,” Oltmans conceded after the loss to Malaysia. But he denied that the team was complacent.
Statistics show mixed picture
Statistics reveal a mixed picture. There was no dearth of effort upfront, but only a fraction of that was capitalised on. The Indian forwards entered the opposition circle 177 times in the seven matches and had 95 shots on target. They could only score 25 goals through the tournament, seven of them through penalty corners and 13 against Pakistan alone. Oltmans would be right in claiming that India dominated attacks. Unfortunately, that alone doesn’t help win matches.
The Indian attack of Ramandeep, Akashdeep, Mandeep and Sunil was patchy at best. Ramandeep may be vilified for his crucial miss in the dying seconds against Malaysia, but if anyone appeared intent on scoring, it was him. Mandeep, in contrast, looked completely out of sorts.
Areas of concern
There is no denying that there are areas of concern for Oltmans. Penalty corners, for one. India earned 25 and converted seven, a decent rate of 28%. But when you consider that eight of them came against Canada and the team still lost, it becomes different.
The police case involving Sardar Singh clearly affected him and he was nowhere in the game post the questioning. It was an off-field distraction, but it dragged the team down on the field. Seniors like Sardar, Sunil and Akashdeep need to be made aware of their responsibilities as leaders, something only Manpreet Singh managed to salvage.
True the uplifting presence of an injured P.R. Sreejesh was missing in the goal. Yes, Rupinderpal Singh and S.K. Uthappa had to leave abruptly before the tournament. Yes, V.R. Raghunath has been all but shunted out of the team.
But if a team for 2020 is the objective, their back-ups need to be blooded at the earliest. And going by the Indian show in London, there is a long way to go for them.
A statistical look at India's performance in the HWL Semifinal:
| Opponent | Shots on target | Circle entries | Penalty corners earned/converted |
| Scotland | 10 | 25 | 1/1 |
| Canada | 14 | 20 | 5/0 |
| Pakistan | 15 | 18 | 4/2 |
| Netherlands | 10 | 12 | 2/0 |
| Malaysia | 10 | 27 | 3/1 |
| Pakistan | 19 | 28 | 2/1 |
| Canada | 17 | 47 | 8/2 |