Inexperience in team led to loss, notes Thankhan Mulackal Chacko

According to the assistant coach, India's planning almost worked.

The FIBA Asia Cup campaign for India has started on a disappointing note. In the Group D opener, New Zealand thumped India 100-47 at Jakarta. The loss in first has definitely pushed India to the fringes of group D, where they are already the lowest-ranked team. 

Assistant Coach Thankhan Mulackal Chacko and Amritpal spoke to the press after the match to discuss India's performance and plans for the upcoming tough matches with Lebanon and the Philippines.

Thoughts on the Bitter Loss

Assistant coach Thankhan Mulackal Chacko attended the press conference in the absence of head coach Veselin Matić who was unwell. Chacko looked assertive and pointed out that India's poor start to the match led to their fall in the match. 

"In the first two quarters, we lost a lot of rebounds. Both offensive and defensive rebounds. In the First quarter itself, we got 14 turnovers that made a big difference for our team. We will look to improve going into the next games," he noted.

Veteran Amritpal Singh's thoughts

Amritpal also shared his thoughts about the match and morale in the dressing room after the big loss. He talked about the lack of experience and saw the game as a learning curve for the team that is full of players from the U-16 team.

Singh defended his team and said, "We have a young team this time and have players from the under-16 age group while New Zealand is an experienced team"

He also added that this game will be a big lesson to his team, "Our guys did play well in this match and this game is a big learning curve. We will look to play hard in the coming games".

Coping with the higher level of opponents

India was completely left bamboozled with New Zealand's aggressive play and pressing style throughout the game. Indian assistant coach was asked questions about India's preparation to deal with a high level of play.

He responded by saying," We did a lot of practice and tried to develop two or three strategies leading up to the New Zealand's match about bringing ball front court quickly. We almost succeeded against them but the inexperienced point guard position didn't do any good."

Development of prospects like Aryan

Amritpal Singh was asked a question regarding the development of young players like Aryan through his experience as he has played four Asia Cups before.

Singh praised Aryan and said, "This is only Aryan's second international tournament after Qualifiers against the Philippines. He also does not have much experience in the domestic circuit. But here he plays with me and experienced coaches like Thankhan Mulackal Chacko sir so it is a good time for him to learn from our experience"

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