Can the hockey team prove Viren Rasquinha happily wrong at the Olympics?

(Also read- From battling abuse and addiction to captaining India at the World Cup: The story of Pankaj Mahajan)

Post the World Cup, the men’s team travelled to Glasgow to take part in the Commonwealth Games 2014. They managed to reach the final to take on Australia, but a dominant performance from the World Champions meant India had to settle for silver. It surely did not have the best teams in the fray, but Australia, England, New Zealand and Malaysia were no pushovers. Incheon was their next destination, for the Asian Games 2014. This was an event with huge stakes as the gold medalists would qualify as Asian representatives to the 2016 Olympics. India grabbed that opportunity with both hands, staving off competition from hosts South Korea and traditional rivals Pakistan and winning their first Asian Games gold after 16 years. The 2014-15 Hockey World League was where India had to really show up, with the best teams in the fray, all taking on each other over two years. The team had to dig deep, and some gutsy displays meant India was only behind Australia and Belgium in the final standings, finishing third.

The clearest signs that India was now a medal contender came in the Champions Trophy though. Invitees to the tournament consisting of the Olympic champions, the World Cup winners, World League champions and winners of Champions Challenge I, India were against mighty opposition. Sardar Singh and Rupinderpal Singh were rested for the tournament, the onus once again on the young brigade to learn and deliver. They did not disappoint at all with firm defending and slick counter-attacking catching the eye. Particularly notable was the pressing play against the Germans in a 3-3 draw in the opening game. Chinglensena, SV Sunil, Akashdeep, Thimmiah and Manpreet, all working in tandem to pressurise the defending champions into making mistakes. In Sreejesh, they had a cool custodian who would keep the opponents out of his goal more often than not.

Arguably, India’s best performance of the tournament came in the final against Australia. Reeling from a 2-4 loss to the Kookaburras just a day earlier, the team went in as the underdogs. But India fought stubbornly refusing to let Australia’s barrage of shots and penalty corners break them. They counter-attacked like a dream, finding space, dribbling well, and catching the defense off-guard. A final ball seemed the only thing lacking though, an issue plaguing the team all through. They could not hold their nerve in the shoot-out, but during the 60 minutes of normal time, the World Champions had clearly been flustered. India, as a team, had grown up.

Their dogged resistance has surprised the best of teams, and the young legs have brought a new lease of life to India’s attacking game. A much higher penalty corner conversion rate would place them right alongside the front-runners in terms of chances. As always with Indian sport, a good performance has already raised the expectations from the team. But they have an experienced coach in Oltmans and with the right discipline and frame of mind, the team can build on this heartening result. History beckons and the team looks determined to enter the record books. Viren Rasquinha would have his fingers crossed, praying that he be proved emphatically wrong.