FIH Pro League 2023-24, home leg review: Beginning and end of different journeys for Indian hockey

While the Indian men returned to Bhubaneswar to kick-start preparations for the Paris Olympics, the women were still hurting after missing the Paris bus and eventually saw coach Janneke Schopman resign.

Indian men, led by Harmanpreet Singh, are currently placed third in the nine-team FIH Pro League 2023-24 season with 15 points from eight games. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

When the Indian men and women returned to Bhubaneswar for the 2023-24 season of the FIH Pro League at the beginning of February, the contrast could not have been more stark. Their performances on field over the next 25 days, to a large extent, mirrored the difference between the two teams off it.

The men were returning to their favourite ground to kick-start preparations for the Paris Olympics, fine-tuning plans and personnel and entering the home stretch of finding the final pieces that will, hopefully, see them atop the podium for a second successive time less than six months from now. The eight games – spread across Bhubaneswar and Rourkela – were also going to be their last time in action at home before setting out on the journey that will culminate in Paris.

The women, on the other hand, would have been contemplating both their recent past and their immediate future -- still hurting from the first that saw them miss the Paris bus and uncertain of the second amidst a renewed clamouring for an overhaul of personnel and little to do in terms of competitions. The emotional outburst by coach Janneke Schopman at the end of the home leg, in Rourkela, followed by her resignation, only made it worse for a team that is still coming to terms with its situation.

Post the Asian Games high, the men’s team had had sobering outings in Valencia and South Africa with mixed results in the two events that hinted the team still had a lot of work to do in pursuit of a second Olympic medal in as many editions. The Pro League at home, while indicating the team’s strengths, reaffirmed the areas of concern, finding ways past stubborn defence to score when denied penalty corners being the most important one.

Akashdeep Singh, the perennial potential star, continued to score a few but miss a lot. Having missed the bus for Tokyo Olympics, Akashdeep would be hoping his luck turns soon. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

India scored 20 goals in eight games, winning three outright and two in shootouts, with 11 of the goals coming off penalty corners. India’s riches in terms of their PC batteries – led by Harmanpreet Singh and including Jugraj and Amit Rohidas with Araijit Hundal in the ranks – make it obvious for the players to explore that as the main scoring option. Yet, as Ireland and Spain showed over the two legs with their excellent defence, alternatives to scoring from open play will always be important. The Indians, in that respect, are far from a finished product. It was also an area that highlighted why the Dutchmen – with their incredible accuracy of passing and trapping and ability to stretch the defence and create space -- are at the top of the table and lost only one game in regulation time here.

The forwards did well to get their chances but they were also guilty of wasting them. Akashdeep Singh, the perennial potential star, continued to score a few but miss a lot. Along with Lalit Upadhyay, he is one of the seniormost members of the side but remains unsure of his spot in the side and the Pro League showed why. With the likes of Abhishek, Sukhjeet and Sanjay impressing with their creativity and initiatives inside the circle, time is running out for the senior pros to impress coach Craig Fulton. Having missed the bus for Tokyo, Akashdeep – ironically, perhaps the most naturally talented of the lot -- would be hoping his luck turns soon.

The defence was equally solid but again, had moments when it struggled to stay structured and calm, especially when up against unstoppable forces like the Australian team. The first match between the two, a 10-goal fest that saw India come back from deficit to take lead only to see it melt away towards the end, was proof that the legs need to be faster still, the stamina increased even more and the fitness to be taken up another notch. The beating heart of the team, however, remains the midfield.

Between them, Hardik Singh, Sumit, Vivek and Manpreet kept the team running all through. They exchanged positions, shifted places as needed, moved up and down, left to right, through the middle and the flanks, constantly keeping the team moving and creating chances. Goalscorers may be the stars in the spotlight but if India wants to still be in action come August 8, it will want the goal-creators to come good. And the goalkeeper – the one position where there will be no back-up with the choice between PR Sreejesh and Krishan Pathak getting tougher by the day – to step up.

The women, however, continued to struggle. They did end their losing streak and win two of the eight games – and one in SO – but the problem of creating chances and not converting them remained. Physically, the Indian women proved they were a match for the best in the business – keeping pace with the Dutchwomen and the Australians for entire games – and held their own defensively but in the end, it’s the goals that count. And while the men boast of perhaps the biggest bench in drag-flick, the women’s cupboard lies bare with Gurjit a shadow of her old self and Deepika not yet there.

READ | No denying Janneke Schopman’s contribution but missing Olympics made her stay untenable

What the Pro League also confirmed was there was no substitute for experience. Vandana Katariya, the fulcrum of most Indian attacks over the past decade, had rarely missed a tournament before the Olympic Qualifiers due to a freak cheekbone injury during training. Her return made the Indian attack suddenly look sharper, stronger and better positioned. Others, including Salima Tete and Sangita, remained quick but if they managed to run riot against the Asian sides in the ACT, the Pro League games against the likes of Netherlands and Australia proved they have a long way to go. It will only get tougher going forward but hopefully, they would have realised it as well.

Of course, the ending was climactic – but it was not as surprising as one would have thought. The women’s team’s failure to make the Paris cut – first at Hangzhou and then at home in Ranchi, where everything from rankings to crowd support to home conditions were in their favour and they only had to finish in the top-three – had already put a target on Schopman’s back. The coach only pre-empted what was expected to happen, perhaps after the European leg of the competition. That doesn’t make it any easier for the girls, especially the senior players in the side, who now have an uncertain future.

Janneke Schopman during the FIH Pro League fixture against Australia on February 17 in Rourkela, her final match as the head coach of the Indian women’s team. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

At the end of it, the Indian men are currently placed third in the nine-team competition with 15 points from eight games, behind Netherlands on top with 26 points from 12 matches and Australia with 20 from eight. With two of the four teams the Indian men played against here, Australia and Ireland, in the same pool at Paris, it helped the team management work out its strategies.

The women are sixth – ahead of USA, Belgium and Great Britain at the moment – but are also the only team that, come July, will not be present at the Olympics. The women will now go home, or to training, waiting for a new coach till the European leg of the Pro League before returning to the drawing board, hoping for a fresh start post Olympics.

The Pro League, in widely different ways, was both the beginning and the end – for the men and the women respectively – of different journeys that may well transform Indian hockey over the next few months.