“There’s a realistic chance to qualify for the World Cup if we stick to the plan in the Pro League,” India vice-captain Hardik Singh had said just before departing for Europe for the second half of the FIH Pro League late last month.
The two-time Olympic bronze medallist was quite confident. And why wouldn’t he be. The Indian men’s hockey team was placed third after the home leg of the elite nine-nation tournament with five wins in eight games. They had beaten the likes of reigning world champions Germany and the feisty England and needed a decent run to make the cut for the 2026 FIH World Cup.
With Olympic champions Netherlands and Belgium having already qualified as hosts and Australia making the cut as last edition’s Pro League champions, the Harmanpreet Singh-led outfit needed to finish fourth to qualify for the World Cup.
But all hell broke loose in Europe. From being in a position to qualify for the World Cup, six successive losses have seen the Craig Fulton-coached side just about avoid a last-place finish, which would have relegated them to the lower tier FIH Nations Cup. With two matches to go against Belgium, India are placed eighth and Ireland ninth in the Pro League table.
It wasn’t as if that India didn’t fight or did not score goals or crumbled under pressure. In the two matches against hosts and world No.1 Netherlands, Harmanpreet and company opened the scoring and led the reigning Olympic champions in front of a partisan crowd at Amstelveen’s Wagener Stadium — the venue for next year’s World Cup. India were also very competitive against world No.6 Argentina and even led against the South American team in the second game. And against defending champions Australia, India were up 2-0 thanks to forward Abhishek’s brace only to give away the advantage and lose.
In all six games, the common factor in India’s losses was conceding goals in the final quarter, a perennial Achilles heel for the Asian champions. While it appeared for some time that India had slowly moved away from conceding late goals, but old habits die hard; they have once again gone back to the old ways.
India’s forwards have regularly scored and so has the Indian penalty corner (PC) battery but the area where the team has failed is ironically the defence with India chief coach Fulton’s main mantra being ‘defend to win’. And this despite having experienced players such as skipper Harmanpreet, Amit Rohidas and Sumit as fullbacks.
A World Cup berth would have relieved the team management of the stress of having to win and qualify via the Asia Cup, to be held in Rajgir, Bihar, in August-September. Had India qualified through the Pro League — which offered the best chance this time around — the management could have tried multiple combinations and newer players in the continental event.
Though India unquestionably is the strongest Asian side, it isn’t going to be a cakewalk at the Asia Cup. And if the hosts miss that opportunity too, it will be a game of nerves in the World Cup qualifiers in February-March. And we all know how the Indian team’s women counterparts missed the bus for the Paris Olympics early last year.
With Ireland assured of the ninth spot, India have escaped the ignominy of relegation and will be hoping to turn the tables against former world and Olympic champions Belgium in the two games on Saturday and Sunday in Antwerp.
“The results have not gone as planned and it’s not that we have played badly. It hurts more when you play well but not convert that into desired result,” Hardik said on Friday.
“This is something we will introspect upon, but for now we are focused on the last two matches here. Belgium and India have always shared a healthy rivalry in recent times and both teams bring out the best in each other. Our focus will be on finishing well, ensuring tighter defence and creating chances to score.”
