World Cup Hockey: Can Harmanpreet & Co. Repay Odisha’s Faith & End A 48-Year Wait?

Bhubaneswar: Over the last five years, Odisha has put its heart and soul into hockey.

From sponsoring the national teams to providing world-class training facilities, hosting a plethora of international tournaments, constructing a new stadium, promoting and developing the sport aggressively – Naveen Patnaik’s government has left no stone unturned to make Odisha the capital of Indian hockey and an important nerve centre of world hockey.

It’s time for the Men in Blue to repay the faith.

Harmanpreet Singh lifting the trophy on the evening of January 29 at the Kalinga Stadium will not only send Bhubaneswar into a joyful frenzy, it will snap a 48-year barren run for India.

Strange as it may sound, the Indian hockey team has not bagged a medal of any hue in World Cup since winning bronze (1971), silver (1973) and gold (1975) in the first three editions of the championship.

There were high hopes four years ago, when Bhubaneswar staged the 14th edition of the World Cup at Kalinga Stadium. A promising campaign was, however, cut short as India lost to the Dutch in a hard-fought quarterfinal after taking the lead, thus finishing 6th in the 16-team tournament.

The pressure to clinch a medal, ideally the gold, will be higher this time, especially after India’s bronze-medal effort at Tokyo Olympics in August 2021 followed by silver in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in the summer of 2022.

With even the so-called ‘minnows’ making progress and developing their skillsets rapidly, there are no easy matches for the ‘heavyweight’ teams these days.

India find themselves in a tricky Pool D, where they are up against England, Spain and debutants Wales.

The top teams have been facing each other quite often in recent times, thanks to the FIH Pro League cycle. Both against Spain and England, India were involved in high-scoring matches in Bhubaneswar last year, with honours more or less even.

The home team will confront Spain – on January 13, the opening day — and England (January 15) at Rourkela’s brand new Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium, before wrapping up their league engagements against inexperienced Wales at Kalinga Stadium on January 19.

A quarterfinal berth is guaranteed only for the four teams which top their respective groups, while the second and third-placed teams will go into the crossovers, which are virtual pre-quarterfinals. Winning the group will be the obvious aim, but all will not be lost for India even if they fail to do so. The task will, however, get stiffer if they are second or third in the group.

Since taking over as India coach in April 2019, Australian Graham Reid has moulded the men in blue into a tough, fighting unit, and the results are starting to show.

There is a stability in the team now, which has ensured that two-thirds of the 2018 World Cup team will again be on duty in the 2023 edition.

The youngest member of the team, 22-year-old Vivek Sagar Prasad, has already earned 90 international caps.

Odisha will watch out for their two home-grown heroes – the experienced Amit Rohidas, who is the vice-captain, and 25-year-old World Cup debutant Nilam Sanjeep Xess.

Defending World Cup and Olympic champions Belgium will be a tough nut to crack, while top-ranked Australia and world No. 3 Netherlands won’t be easy to overcome either.

India, ranked sixth in the world, will be the dark horse for the gold medal, not least because of the full-throated support of big crowds at Birsa Munda Stadium and Kalinga Stadium. Tickets for the three match days when India are playing have been sold out well in advance.

Harmanpreet summed up India’s chances nicely.

“It won’t be easy be easy, but we are determined to win… we’ll have a game-by-game strategy to advance in the championship,” the skipper said.

An exciting fortnight awaits Indian hockey.

INDIAN SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, PR Sreejesh

Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh (captain), Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas (vice-captain), Nilam Sanjeep Xess

Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh

Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh

Alternate players: Rajkumar Pal, Jugraj Singh

Head coach: Graham Reid.

INDIA’S POOL D FIXTURES

India vs Spain — January 13, Rourkela (7 pm)

India vs England — January 15, Rourkela (7 pm)

India vs Wales — January 19, Bhubaneswar (7 pm).