New Indian Express: Raghunath happy with team’s effort to cross London bridge
By Vivek Phadnis
BENGALURU: It seems as if the silver medal-winning show of the Indian hockey team in the Champions Trophy in London has come as a timely boost for the players ahead of the Rio Olympics. Being one of the senior members of the team, drag-flicker VR Raghunath is happy with way the team performed and hopes the players can learn from mistakes. India won and lost two apiece and drew one in the group stage before losing in tie-breaker against Australia in the final.
“We had our chances in the final and should have taken them. But I’m extremely happy with the team’s performance. It’s good to play against teams ranked better than us and we need to learn from our mistakes. This tournament let us know where we stand,” said Ragahunath, who will now be part of the team that takes part in a six-nation invitational tournament in Spain from June 27.
The defender also said the team was prepared for the final. It turned out to be a controversial game and India had an appeal against review turned down. “The final is always different and we were mentally prepared. We had analysed the previous game against Australia and wanted to fight till the last minute,” he said. However, the Karnataka player feels there is scope to do better. “There is always room for improvement. We should take our chances well. There are always small things to work on, in penalty-corner conversion and defending, defending in general or even scoring.”
Another area the team needs a bit of work is defending. “We defended as well as we could but could have done better. We could have defended some of the penalty-corners better, but we are improving by the day,” said the player who scored two goals in the tournament. As part of the team’s rotation policy, midfielder Sardar Singh and drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh were rested, while Manpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh were tested out. “The youngsters get good exposure to international hockey as they understand how to play in such events. It also helps them learn and teaches how to make most of chances,” Raghunath signed off.