8 July
Indian men’s team returns
A day after the Indian women’s team returned home to a rapturous welcome after a historical performance at the Hockey World League semifinals in Antwerp, the men made a comparatively silent return home in the wee hours of Tuesday after finishing fourth in the tournament.
The Sardar Singh-led team did manage to make it to the top four but its performance in the tournament left a lot to be desired.
However, there were some positives for the side and one of them was Jasjit Singh Kular. The 25-year old hogged the limelight by scoring two goals in India’s win against Malaysia but his presence on the field was one of the stabilising factors in the side’s defence.
“It was a good tournament for me. I tried to do my best as per the team’s plans and I am thankful to my team and the coaches for their confidence in me. It is a great responsibility to perform against the world’s top teams and it was a great learning experience for me. It will only help me move forward and improve further for future tournaments,” Jasjit said on the team’s return.
Task cut out
The tournament, in fact, was more about the younger players in the side and by that yardstick, coach Paul van Ass would have his task cut out in the coming days. Besides Jasjit, the other youngsters to impress were Davinder Walmiki, making his senior team debut, and Lalit Upadhyay with his runs down the middle and clean passing and trapping.
“The tournament was a fruitful one. Young players like Jasjit Singh and Davinder Walmiki, got a good platform to gain experience against top teams and now we have more options for the national side. Overall, I feel all players played well as per the team’s strategy. Yes, there are some shortcomings and we will be working on them,” Hockey India’s high performance director Roelant Oltmans said.