What are the takeaways from India's FIH Pro League tour to South Africa?

The men’s hockey team played four Pro League fixtures in Potchefstroom.

The Indian men's hockey team have completed their South Africa sojourn, that saw them participate in the FIH Hockey Pro League. The outfit played matches against France and South Africa. They came away with three wins and one defeat. The fixtures were particularly important to gauge the Indian men’s team’s progress, since winning the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

It is worth noting that the Indian hockey team secured an Olympic bronze, thereby ending a wait of 40 years for an Olympic medal in field hockey. Furthermore, India are one of the highest-ranked teams in the world at the moment. Therefore, expectations are high for the major tournaments in 2022. 

The trip of the Indian hockey team for the Pro League bore several positives, but there were a few negatives as well, that they need to iron out. Here are the key takeaways from India’s tour to South Africa:

Positives

Goalscoring Form

India are currently second in the FIH Pro League charts for scoring the most goals after four matches. They have 27 goals in four, while the Netherlands have scored 28 goals in six matches. The Men in Blue scored 10 goals in a single fixture on two occasions against hosts South Africa. Their form in front of goal was praiseworthy.

Penalty-Corner Conversion

Harmanpreet Singh is the leading goalscorer for now in the Pro League with seven goals. The defender is a major threat from PC situations and scored six of his seven goals from the edge of the circle.

Graham Reid also found a second source of threat from PC situations in Jugraj Singh. He was particularly lethal against South Africa in the first of the two matches, scoring a hat-trick. 

The emergence of Krishan Pathak

While veteran goalkeeper Sreejesh was the center of attention, another player caught the eye with his performance. Krishan Pathak took his place between the sticks against South Africa in India’s fourth match in the FIH Pro League.

The 24-year-old had a shaky start, but grew in confidence. He ended up making a sensational save from a penalty stroke. Indian hockey fans will be happy to see a good replacement in waiting for the experienced Sreejesh. 

Negatives

Lack of patience

While India were exceptional in three of the four FIH Pro League games, the odd defeat exposed several issues. France were more compact and resilient in defence in the second meeting with India, after losing 5-0 in the first. The lack of space for the Indian forwards made them impatient and prone to errors.

Too many players were left forward in order to find goals, which led to two quickfire goals in the dying stages of the match. This is an aspect the coaching staff will need to fix while coming up against teams that defend deep.

Variations in penalty-corners

India were too reliant on Harmanpreet Singh earlier and found a good option in Jugraj Singh from PC situations. However, a sense of predictability remained and that was exposed by the French team in the FIH Pro League.

France did not let India score from 11 penalty corners in the 5-2 win for the Europeans. Each of those PCs saw a similar fate, getting blocked by the rushing defender or going wide. Perhaps, the Indian players could benefit from more variations and less reliance simply on power. 

Less protection on wings

A particular aspect of the defeat against France was the allowance of room on the flanks to the opposition. South Africa also enjoyed a lot of room, particularly on the right flank, which gave them the opportunity to deliver dangerous crosses.

The Indian defence tends to become too narrow on occasions and that leaves room for their rivals on the wings. A stronger team like the Netherlands or Belgium could certainly hurt India more if these issues persist in the future.

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