It’s the last line of defence. A role in hockey that can make or break a team’s fortunes.

Goalkeeping is a facet of the game well appreciated by former India coach Harendra Singh, ex-India defender who knows too well the value of a good goalkeeper.

So much so that when he took over as coach of the India junior team in 2005, he convinced the powers- that-be that goalkeeping should be perked up.

“I believe for a team to do well, it’s important to have good goalkeepers,” Harendra asserts.

The  51-year-old Harendra’s persistence with the theory has now seen Indian goalkeeping stocks at an all-time high.

The iconic PR Sreejesh, quite clearly one of the best in the world, stands tall in heat of battle. Literally and figuratively.

The 1.83m-tall goalkeeper has tilted the scales in many a battle and has proven to be a stumbling block to the wiliest of strikers in the dreaded shootout.

Sreejesh has been the perfect mentor to his young deputies over the years. And this has helped young Krishan Pathak, the second-choice, blossom.

With coach Harendra’s conviction on developing goalkeepers, the department has been able to boldly express itself in recent years with young incumbents not shy of daring and doing.

So in came two more – Suraj Karkera and Akash Chikte – to boost the already impressive goalkeeping stocks of the Indian team.

But for the moment, it’s Sreejesh largely and Pathak who will handle India’s goalkeeping duties with Karkera the third in line.

Physically, they are a study in contrast. Pathak just 5-foot-seven, is largely reserved and restrained quite unlike his flamboyant and exuberant senior colleague.

But the young Gurkha, who Harendra spotted at the Junior National Championship in Mysuru in 2015 where he represented Punjab, has bid fair to be a promising understudy to Sreejesh – who also caught the coach’s eye as an under-14 more than a decade earlier.

In 48 senior internationals, the 23-year-old Pathak has accepted a secondary role to Sreejesh who made his debut in 2006.

Pathak made his junior international debut in 2016 against England, two days after his father, a crane operator in Kapurthala, Punjab, passed away from a heart attack.

It was a preparatory series as a build-up to the 2016 Junior World Cup and Pathak, who lost his mother when he was 12, chose to skip his father’s last rites in Nepal from where he hails and stay with the team.

In the process he showed much the same courage and dedication that underline his spirit and passion under the bar.

Pathak made his senior international debut in 2018 in New Zealand and has hung in there despite, understandably, the lack of pitch time with the 32-year-old Sreejesh, a veteran of 234 internationals, a safe and warranted first-choice.

But a knee injury to India’s senior custodian at the 2017 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup gave Pathak, a member of the Junior World Cup winning team at Lucknow 2016 under Harendra’s tutelage,  a chance to shine during an eight-month period when Sreejesh rehabilitated.

Ironically, his high-point so far was keeping goal in the 2019 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup final against South Korea after the match went into the shootout which India lost.

The experience was fruitful despite defeat and it was clear that Pathak was set for bigger things.

Harendra has no doubt. “Krishan reads the game very well. His analysis of the game and coordination with his defenders is remarkable,” says Harendra who guided India to the quarterfinals and a sixth-place finish in the 2018 World Cup in Bhubaneswar .

“He is also agile and good at defending penalty corners,” Harendra adds.

Pathak also has grown by leaps and bounds thanks to Sreejesh’s mentorship and counsel.

Now with the Tokyo Olympics postponed to next year and the team emerging from the lockdown with measured training, Sreejesh and Pathak will get down to fortifying the citadel as World No. 4 India aim for a podium finish at the Games for the first time in four decades.