Our target is the final’
Uthra Ganesan

New Delhi: The Indian Hockey team returned from their four-test series against Argentina on Sunday and straightaway left for Chandigarh, where they will play the Gold Cup from January 31. While the series in Argentina ended in a draw, the team are high on confidence and satisfied after their performance.

“For a team playing their first competitive matches in almost a year — with some new boys, some comeback players and a new, inexperienced captain — I am pretty satisfied with our overall performance. But there are grey areas that need to be worked on, and I am sure if we continue working at this pace, they will be erased soon,” said coach Harendra Singh on arrival.

“If we get more ball possession, we will increase our chances to score and also reduce the opposition’s attempts. Also, we need to reduce the turnovers, which result in the opposition going on attack, thus increasing the chances of their scoring,” he explained.

But for the coach, there are more positives from this tour than concerns. One of these is the fact that the opposition was surprised by the Indian performance. “This was a tough tour. Argentina are a very strong team, and they play rough. They had also prepared well for this series. But they were definitely surprised at the intensity and attacks from our team. It took them some time to realise that this was not a rusted, weak Indian squad,” he said.

As for ‘inexperienced captain’ Sandeep Singh, he did reasonably well on his first assignment as the leader. “There was no senior-junior rift. In a team sport, seniority in terms of captaincy can make or break things. But this time, the seniors were vocal in their opinions and guidance but not upset at someone else being captain. Sandeep was clearly the leader. I am confident that, if we play at the same level, we can make it to the final of the four-nation meet. That is our target,” he added.