Poised for a big leap

On the eve of their first match at the Hockey Junior World Cup, the Indian head coach Harendra Singh had promised one thing. “My team won’t let anyone return disappointed from the stadium,” he had said.

Harendra’s band of boys stayed true to their coach’s words as they entertained one and all at the Major Dhyan Chand stadium with their free-flowing and fearless hockey throughout the tournament.

While there were moments when the Harjeet Singh-led side tested everyone’s patience, the boys kept the capacity crowd here engaged with some edge-of-the-seat action for the majority of the campaign, culminating in the title-victory on Sunday night.

The Lucknow event also highlighted the mental toughness of the side. Against an ultra-defensive Spanish side in the quarterfinals, the Indian colts — who rely much on their counter-attacking prowess and speed — were made to think outside their comfort zone. With a tight man-to-man marking choking the Indian attack, it was Harmanpreet Singh who led the switch to diagonal balls from the back to break the Spanish backline.

“These boys are mentally very strong,” said the Spanish head coach Roger Pallarols after their defeat against India.

“They struggled through the game. But not any moment it looked like the Indians would concede the game. At this level, if you can push the game to this extent, the teams usually crack. But not the Indians,” he added explaining the determination the Indians showed after being behind in the game until the last 15 minutes.

While their title-win is no mean achievement, many of the colts also used the opportunity to knock on the doors of the senior team. The senior team’s head coach Roleant Oltmans was in Lucknow as the team manager, and the Dutch tactician would agree that a few in the junior team have already created a flutter.

Leading the group is the skipper Harjeet. Growing up at Jalandhar’s Surjeet Hockey Academy, Harjeet used to watch videos of his idol Sardar Singh and the then upcoming talent Manpreet Singh. His craze for the Indian midfielder was so much that he claims to have modeled his game on Sardar. And that was evident during the World Cup.

Harjeet led his side by example. He set up scoring opportunities, bothered the opposition defenders with his smooth stickwork and even sounded the board once.
The other player who grabbed his chance was defender Dipsan Tirkey. Hailing from the same village as the former Indian stalwart Dilip Tirkey, the calm and composed full-back from Sundargarh, Odisha, was a picture of concentration.

He teamed up with Harmanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar and the trio was on top of its game throughout. Though the senior team’s defence has been good over the season, who is to tell that Oltmans wouldn’t want to try a new face in that area?
Forward Parvinder Singh too could see himself being called into the senior camp in the coming months. The 21-year-old from Punjab might not have scored as many goals as he would have wanted to. But his presence inside the opposition circle invariably resulted in something positive for the Indians. He used his body frame to good use to unsettle the defence, while his anticipation and the skill to make himself free in a crowded defence saw him prove a menace for the opposition.

When will these boys graduate and how many would see themselves rub shoulders with the seniors can only be answered by time. But for now, one thing is certain — this team carries the calibre to take Indian hockey to higher echelons of the game.