Can the Indian hockey team win a medal in Rio Olympics?
After excellent performances from the Indian men’s hockey in past few months, the Indian men’s hockey team is ready to take on the best in the world at the Rio Olympics. India is grouped with Ireland, Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, and Canada. They play their first match against Ireland on 6th August
The Indian men’s hockey team finished last at the London Olympics in 2012. Since the coach has changed the Indian men’s hockey team have given a tough fight to top teams in the world. In 2014, the Indian men’s hockey team won a bronze medal in a prestigious tournament after 36 years. They also won the gold medal at the Asian Games in 2014 which helped them to qualify directly into the Rio Olympics. They also won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games.
In 2015 the Indian men’s hockey team defeated Australia in Australia and in 2016, success followed as they clinched a silver medal at the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament. They took their good form to the Champions Trophy held in London this year and won a historic silver medal, losing to Australia in the finals via penalty shootouts. The Indian hockey team have played some outstanding hockey in the past couple of months to give hope to fans about a medal prospect in the Olympics.
The Indian men’s hockey team is currently 5th in world rankings and tt the Rio Olympics, the team will be led by goalkeeper P Sreejesh. The Indian team have good mix of experience and youth which will be important to the team’s cause. The attack includes Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, SV Sunil, and Nikkin Thimmaiah who are players with experience. They have great abilities to play well and attack as a unit, but it is important that they convert chances into goals if India is to win matches in Rio Olympics.
The ability to convert goals from penalty corners will be important to India’s chances. India has three quality penalty corner specialists in the form of Rupinder Pal Singh, Raghunath and Harmanpreet Singh.
The main problem for the Indian team has been to concede goals at the end moment. The defence must not concede cheap penalty corners to opponents and the team needs to play consistently if they want to defeat top teams like Australia and Netherlands.
Prior to this tournament the Indian team had good training and hope that they do the basic things right and forget not dwell on what happened at London 2012. The Indian team has a good defence in the form of Kothajit Singh, Devinder Walmiki , Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh. They must focus on not conceding soft penalty corners and shut down space to the opposition’s attackers.
It is the right chance for the Indian team to play with an aggressive attitude and make the country proud again with a good performance in the Rio Olympics. It is important that the hockey team should have a positive mindset in the matches. P Sreejesh will be an important player to determine India’s fortunes in the games, as well as the penalty corner specialists, who could decide the fate of a match.
The time has come for the Indian men’s hockey team to prove all wrong and come with strong performances in the Rio. After years of disappointment and failure at major tournaments, it's time for the Indian people to back and support the team and help them bring back glory again.