Spain tour is a good exposure tour for players ahead of Asian Champions Trophy, reveals Craig Fulton

The Indian men's hockey team coach joined captain Harmanpreet for an interaction with the press.

The Indian national hockey team after a months break post the Pro League campaign will head to Spain to take part in the Torneo Del Centenario competition from July 25-30. After a few days time, the team will head back to Chennai to take part in the Asian Champions Trophy.

The 24-member squad was announced by Hockey India on Friday (July 7th) and the coach Craig Fulton alongside captain Harmanpreet Singh shared their views on the recent performance and the squad selection.

Sessions with Mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton

South Africa's Paddy Upton was recently appointed as the mental health conditioning coach of Indian Hockey men's team ahead of all important Asian Games. He was part of the 2011 Indian World Cup winning team playing an active role from behind. Paddy was also part of several IPL franchises and a few ISL clubs in India.

Craig Fulton, on the the appointment of Paddy Upton, iterated, "Paddy Upton has joined us at SAI Bengaluru and at the start wanted to understand about Indian hockey. He hasn't worked in hockey before apart from managing Australian men's side from a leadership role.

In his first week, has started accessing players on and off the field which was his priority and going forward we together shall look to do better than what we have done before.

"Furthermore, Paddy isn't going to be the main voice in the team rather we are trying to help the team find its own voice and manage themselves internally and it is when we can become a championship side. We do not want someone giving all the instructions but with Paddy in the team it will be beneficial".

"We are on a discovery phase right now. Previously, Graham Reid had a done a good job of putting India on the global map with consistent results apart from few disappoints and now we want to maintain the position and improve from what we are currently. To be precise, we want to search for ways to do things better than what we had done before," head coach added.

Team selection for Spain Tour

The squad for the four nation tour to Spain was announced on July 7th. 24-member team has been selected for the tour.

Head coach on squad selection said, "Off the 39 players in the core group we have selected 24 players for the Spain tour. Previously, I did not work with all the players as I was allowed to take only 24 players for the Pro League matches but now more or less got to see all the players with few additions for the Spain tour.

We will be playing five matches in the four-nation series (along with an exhibition match with the Catalonian side for their centenary celebration). This should be a good exposure tour for the players ahead of the Asian Champions Trophy.

After the conclusion of Spain tour, the Indian team will be heading to Chennai to take part in the Asian Champions Trophy.

On the squad selection for the Asian Champions Trophy the coach asserted, "The 24 players who will heading to Spain will also be travelling to Chennai for the Asian Champions Trophy. Apart from these 24 players we will have two additional players from the national camp join in Chennai.

The squad will consist of 26 players overall and a few days before the tournament will select the 18-member squad. The rest of the players not in the squad will be training alongside us in Chennai. With Asian Games not far ahead we want the players to keep training and stay together."

Any pressure ahead of the Asian Games

Asian Games will serve as a qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympic Games with the winner securing the Olympics spot.

"We have an ideal goal and a realistic goal. The ideal goal is to win whichever tournament we have have entered in and the realistic goal is to see where you are ranked and how far are you away from the top team. In the Asian Games, we are basically one of the top teams but ultimately it all boils down to the process; like getting the selection done, finding out best combination from the pool etc.

"We are heading to Spain first and then come back to play in the Asian Champions Trophy with both possessing different challenges. There are two ways to qualify for Paris; first is to win the Asian Games and the other is playing the qualifiers.

We do not want to play the qualifiers when we have a great chance qualifying through Asian Games route. Currently looking forward to the Spain tour and then the Asian Champions Trophy followed by Asian Games; focusing one tournament at a time."

Maintaining consistency

Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh on maintaining consistency iterated, "Whenever we play against a top quality side we stay focused throughout the game as we are playing a higher ranked side.

On the contrary, when we play against a bottom ranked side then somehow we feel easy and take the match on a softer note. Paddy gave us an example that everyday will not be your day and sometimes lose as well.

For eg. defeating Australia doesn't mean we have achieved everything and on the on the other side, if we lose against a bottom ranked side doesn't mean we are bad. It all boils down to consistency which needs to be maintained throughout the season and is currently being worked on."