By B Shrikant
Birmingham, Aug 9 (IANS): There is not much a hockey team can do when Australia, the top-ranked side in the world, is on the attack and dominating. But Manpreet Singh, captain of the Indian team, said they should have put the Aussies under more pressure, opened up the other flank, reduced the pace and defended well so that opportunities for counterattack could have been created.
Manpreet gave an insight into what his team could have done well in hindsight after Australia thrashed India 7-0 in the final at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games here.
"We need to put more pressure on the Aussies in upcoming tournaments. When they were attacking from one side, we could have opened up the other flank, the midfielders should have moved more balls upfront and we should have created more chances upfront, utilise our strength in drag flick to hurt them," said Manpreet Singh about what all his team could have done to stop the Aussie juggernaut.
The Indian midfield was totally disjointed in the absence of Vivek Sagar Prasad, and Manpreet himself, who injured his right shoulder and had to sit out a large part of the match.
Manpreet said they will study the recording of the match and identify the areas that need improvement.
"It's a really good team right now. A lot of players are young, so (they) just need to have more experience. This is the experience we are getting from what is right now the best hockey team in the world, so we just need to learn," he said.
Manpreet said he did not expect the match to be one-sided. "We did not expect that, we had come here hoping for a close fight. We had prepared well and played well in the tournament till the final. So, there was no pressure," he added.
India had lost to Australia 8-0 in the CWG final in 2010 and by a 4-0 margin in the 2014 final. With India being thrashed 1-7 in a pool match of the Tokyo Olympics and with the 7-0 defeat on Monday, is India becoming a bogey team for Australia?
Manpreet said it was not so and that they have had good days against them too. "Today was a day when nothing went right for us," he said.