Young guns focused & ready to fire: Sreejesh

Any team which is beleagured by controversies over selection issues can be forgiven for facing problems with morale. But reserve goalkeeper PR Sreejesh believes that the Indian hockey team is unaffected by the drama over the axing of senior players and is focused on clinching an Olympic berth.

Chief coach Michael Nobbs and the selectors dropped several senior players from the 18-member squad for the qualifiers to be held in New Delhi from February 18-26 on form and fitness. The decision peeved former skipper Rajpal Singh who alleged that the promised fitness test never took place. Veteran midfielder Arjun Halappa threatened to go into retirement.

Sreejesh insisted that the young players are eager to prove themselves in Indian colours. “We are just doing our job. We are focusing more on the tournament. We are not thinking about what happened during the South Africa series or what happened with the seniors. All we are thinking about is our performance on the field,” Sreejesh told The Pioneer.

“Practice is going very well. The team is doing fine. We are practicing really hard and are looking forward to the qualifiers,” he added.

The experienced custodian was confident that Olympic qualification should not be too difficult for India but warned that rival teams should not be taken lightly. “It is all in the hands of God. But we will try our best, that much I can tell you,” he asserted.

“We cannot take any team lightly. Even teams like Poland and Singapore can be dangerous. On the field, the team that plays better will win. They will try to raise the level of their game against us,’ he added. “Poland and Canada are very good teams and have the ability to draw against us.”

The Indian team made heavy weather of things against a lower ranked team like South Africa during the Test series last month, conceeding 10 goals in five games, but Sreejesh asserted that his team mates played quite well despite the presence of several inexperienced young players in the line-up.

“Personally I feel that we have done a very good job. We never played one team consistently. We always changed at least two or three players in every match. So that affected the performance a bit,” he said.

“It was like our selection trials. It helped to expose the weak points. So we should be totally prepared for the qualifiers,” he added.

India’s defence though has looked a bit fragile at times and conceding goals in almost every match in the recent past which have led to questions being raised over the fitness levels of Sandeep Singh, and V R Raghunath. But Sreejesh insisted that everything will be sorted out.

“It was only due to minor mistakes which we had committed. We are trying to rectify those in the camp. Dilip Tirkey is assisting our defence now. So that will help us improve our defence and our strategy,” he stated.

Talking about the strong points of the team Sreejesh highlighted penalty-corner conversion and the forward-line as the positives.

“Penalty corner conversion is very good. And our forward line is also doing a very good job. They are scoring a lot of goals nowadays.”

The hero of last year’s Asian Champions Trophy final also admitted that he was impressed with the performance of several young players during the Test series against the Proteas.

“Everyone is doing good. There are a couple of young players like Kothajit (Singh) (SK) Uthappa, who is a newcomer. Then there is Manpreet Singh. They are all doing well,” Sreejesh said.

“I am also in good form and also very confident. looking forwars to a great tournament.”