Indian women hockey team: Still stuck in 2018?

The way Indian team performed and were knocked out from the 2022 Women Hockey World Cup has once again enraged many Indian fans. This time, it’s the players who are under scrutiny and correctly so as they have not performed well. However, it is not just this tournament that India has failed to perform, it’s been a story since 2018. We Indian hockey fans, have been missing this identify this pattern.

Yes, there have been satisfactory results in these four years (Tokyo Olympics comes to mind), but those results should have propelled India get better in the year 2022. However, things have not moved for Indian team.

Yes, there has been a change in mindset from 2018 Hockey World Cup to 2022 Hockey World Cup. However, we see that change in mindset in phases.

Let us look at some of these issues that have continued to affect Indian team since 2018.

Goal Scoring:

This might come as a shock to some fans, but Indian team’s goal scoring record has not been convincing since 2018 Commonwealth Games. India has done well when the team is touring other nations and facing developmental squad. But in international competitions that matter, the team has just failed to score enough goals.

Here’s India’s goal scoring record in major competitions since 2018:

(Results FIH Pro League matches are not considered as India faced many developmental squads)

Asian Games and Olympics show good numbers but most of goals in Asian Games were scored against lower ranked teams.

In major tournaments, performance against Top 10 teams’ matter. Indian women hockey team however has not given good account of themselves against these top teams.

Considering the performance against FIH Hockey’s Top 10 teams, India scored just two goals in Commonwealth Games 2018 (England). Indian hockey team scored just two goals in the World Cup (England and USA). Team scored just three against Japan and China in Asian Games (not in Top 10 FIH rankings).

Indian team did better in Tokyo Olympics, scoring seven goals against the likes of Netherlands (1), Great Britain (4), Australia (1) and Argentina (1). Of all these matches played, Indian team won just three games- England, Australia, and China.

2022 World Cup too is the same story, Indian team has scored just 5 goals in the 4 games played. Indian team has yet to register a win the tournament*.

The current forward line up of Vandana, Sharmila and Navneet together have just scored six goals against the top nations of the world since 2018 in major tournaments with Vandana scoring four of these six goals.

Doing well in the tours or other tournaments and then failing to deliver in tournament where it matters has been the story of Indian team. India cannot continue to bully smaller nations and sit in their cocoon when they face big teams.

Penalty Corners:

Continuing the subject of goal scoring comes penalty corners which too is a cause for concern. When your forwards are struggling to score, you focus on penalty corner conversion. In 2022 World Cup, Indian team has just converted three out of twenty-eight penalty corners earned. Two of them coming through Vandana Katariya and just one from India’s penalty corner expert Gurjit Kaur.

India’s penalty corner routine has looked predictable in the tournament, and it has been a cake walk for most of the opposing teams in terms of defending.

Even the variations that the team is applying to score are not working. For a long time, we have been calling out this glaring issue between winning and converting off these penalty corners. Our cries, however, are falling on deaf ears as there’s no action taken on this aspect. India desperately needs to invest penalty corner coach to help players in converting these penalty corners.

Another problem is the lack of other available options with drag flicks. Apart from Gurjit and to a certain extent Salima Tete, there is no penalty corner expert available for Indian team set up.

In the recently concluded Junior World Cup, Indian team scored five goals from thirty penalty corners earned however, and there we could not find a single penalty corner expert to take up the duty from Gurjit Kaur. Indian team’s penalty corner tank is empty and only a penalty corner coach can improve the current available lot.

Core:

There has been no major change in core of Indian team in last four years. The players who formed the core in 2018 World Cup are still part of core team in 2022. It is expected from the core group to lead from the front and take responsibility for the team. Indian core group has not delivered in the 2022 Hockey World Cup

The only players to have done well from the core group are Savita and Vandana. The midfield players like Navjot, Sushila and Monika had no impact in the tournament. Navneet in forward line too failed to support Vandana with goals. In short, the quality in the Indian core is missing. Only Neha Goyal and Lalremsiami can go back home meeting the expectations.

It’s not this World Cup, where the core has failed to perform, the story has been same in most of the tournaments played in last four years. Against lower ranked teams, Indian core has done exceedingly well and scored loads of goals. As soon as a team with quality enters the pitch, the core falls like a pack of cards. Navjot Kaur, a veteran with two hundred caps has not scored for India since August 2019.

Approach:

A lot of India’s performance has to do with approach of Indian team. Indian team enters every tournament with a very defensive mindset. Since 2018, in every game against quality side, India has defended. As soon as the game starts, Indian players just have one thought in mind-defend. Indian team does well defensively but it comes at the expense of scoring goals. This has hurt Indian team many times in last four years.

In 2022 World Cup, only time we saw Indian team going in the game with attacking intent was against New Zealand. In desperation to get a favorable result considering place in quarterfinals/crossover was on the line, we saw Indian team attacking. Result- the team scored three goals. Everyone on social media was happy to see this look of Indian team. A regular mode of playing for other teams is a Christmas special that is dished out by Indian women team.

This is a time for change in the Indian team, especially the change in the way Indian team approaches the game. It’s time to get players out of their comfort zone by replacing them with fresh players. Fortunately for India, Asian Games are postponed, and this gives the team management ample time to come with a new game plan. Few Indian players have not moved ahead, its time the team moves on.

*Goals scored by Indian hockey team before classification games.

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