‘No chalta hai anymore in Indian hockey team’

New Delhi: The Indian hockey players are using innovative methods to brush up their game and make the most of their practice matches after a 2-1 win over Argentina here on Tuesday night.

“It was a well-contested match, just the kind of practice we need ahead of a big tournament,” said Sandeep Singh, who converted a penalty-corner. After Argentina levelled scores, captain Rajpal Singh scored the winner.

“It was a see-saw battle because we had an equaliser and then had to score to get ahead. We hope to take the positives from this match for our engagements ahead,” added Sandeep, the ace drag-flicker. Teammate Dhananjay Mahadik was happy that the basics were being worked out by chief coach Jose Manuel Brasa.

“We have been working on our economy of foot movement and stick-work. The idea is to take a step less when turning around and to restrict the number of touches on the ball to less than four. That has been a challenge during practice matches,” said Dhananjay.

“We are working on taking advantage of the rolling substitution rule as well. Also, there is the challenge of mastering the art of ‘man to man marking’, which does not come easily to us,” he added.

Brasa had stressed on the need to improve basics like trapping and passing immediately after he took over the job.

“Adapting takes more time and we have had to shed the ‘chalta hai’ attitude that Indians are so used to. It is a matter of not breaking any chain, which becomes so important for the team,” added Dhananjay.

“We were made to take drag-flicks with balls which were 200 grams more than the regular weight, then those with 150 grams above, then even lesser. The idea was to get more power into our shots,” added Mahadik.