Happy with preparations, Craig Fulton confident of good performance in Asian Champions Trophy

The Indian men’s hockey team will begin their campaign on August 3 against China.

The Indian men’s hockey team is set for another exciting week as the action unfolds in the Asian Champions Trophy 2023 scheduled to be held in Chennai from August 03 to 12 at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium. A total of six teams are set to participate in the seventh edition of the tournament and this also serves as a pre-cursor for upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games 2022.

The Indian team finished third in the recently concluded Spain tour and within days are back in India to regain back the trophy which they last won in 2018.

Ahead of the tournament, India head coach Craig Fulton addressed the media.

Preparations ahead of Asian Champions Trophy

Out of the four matches played at Corneo Del Centenario tournament, India won only one match, losing one along with two draws.

Craig Fulton on the preparations said, “It’s been pretty fast since I have joined the Indian team. Initially we had just two weeks of training before heading to Europe for the FIH Pro League. The matches in Pro League helped us identify our game. After heading back to India, we had a few weeks of rest before heading to training prior to the Spain tour. The four to five matches in Spain helped us prepare well and overall happy on the preparations.”

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Getting Paddy Upton on board

Paddy Upton was recently appointed as the mental conditioning coach for the men’s hockey team. The South African has been successful in various stints in India – part of India’s title winning ODI World Cup team in 2011.

The coach said, “The main reason for appointing Paddy Upton is that he has lot of experience working for different teams in India and importantly the success he has had with the Indian teams. So, he knows the culture here better and has a clear plan charted out. And at the same time, he brings in leadership skills which we are trying to instill in the players.”

Thoughts on playing on a new pitch

Chennai was given the hosting rights for Asian Champions Trophy 2022 back in April. The stadium was modified from relaying of brand-new turf to renovating the stadium completely. Ahead of the tournament only one match was played between the local clubs of Chennai with the first international match set to be played on August 3rd.

“In the recent tour to Spain, we played on a brand-new pitch and adapted quickly. Yes, the pitch in Chennai was laid recently and it will behave the same for all the teams. We haven’t practised yet in Chennai but generally the new pitches are slower to start with, but we generally like to play a fast-paced game. Have to assess the conditions after the training sessions and adapt quickly.”

Lack of goalscorers

In the recently concluded Spain tour, Harmanpeet Singh scored five out of the six goals India scored and five out of those came through penalty corners. Dilpreet Singh was the other lone goal scorer for the team.

“The higher you go up, the more difficult it gets. There weren’t many goals scored by the opponents either through PCs. The World Cup held recently was a low scoring affair and it gets harder to score past teams which are organized and disciplined in defense. But yeah, we need to work on and are aware of it and will keep training to get better.”

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