Hockey World Cup: Familiar failings that felled India

The inability to handle pressure, poor game management skills, a couple of questionable selections, captain Harmanpreet Singh's surprising slump in form and the perennial problem of bungling in the final quarter combined in cruel fashion to deliver the death blow to the Indian hockey team.

The bungling hosts fell out of medal contention at the FIH Hockey World Cup after losing their crossover game against New Zealand here on Sunday.

Since winning their sole World Cup way back in 1975, India haven’t particularly been a strong force in the showpiece event but expectations were sky-high this time following their bronze medal winning effort at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. But those lofty hopes met the stark reality of how far behind this Indian side still is compared to modern day heavyweights like Australia, Belgium and Netherlands as they fumbled on several fronts to suffer an embarrassing defeat that will hurt them for years to come.

Odisha literally rolled out the red carpet, not once but twice in hosting back to back World Cups for the Indian men to hog all the limelight. Instead, the dumbstruck bunch were searching for the best place to hide under the dazzling but unforgiving floodlights of the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

The abject performance against New Zealand, ranked four places below the hosts at World No. 10, was in essence Indian hockey in a nutshell over the last few decades where they’ve mastered the art of snatching defeat from the hands of victory like few sporting teams in the world. Lessons still haven't been learnt.

After a measured start to the do-or-die contest, India made a roaring beginning to the second quarter and deservedly led 2-0 — the first a classic superb counter-attacking goal and the second Sukhjeet Singh showing good presence of mind to tap home from a rebound off a penalty corner.

Having got what they wanted, it was all then about game management against a side who were expected to give them some scares with odd counter attacks. They had to keep possession, pick the right moments to go forward and ensure numbers were always there in defence to smother any Kiwi foray. But they lost their focus momentarily and New Zealand punished them by pulling one back.

India did show some character by restoring the two goal advantage in the 40th minute and with 20 minutes left on the clock, it was a decent cushion to see the game out. Simple basic and sensible hockey was the need of the hour. What transpired though was an error-strewn performance that turned into a calamity towards the end.

They failed to hold possession, lost the ball in key areas to the Black Sticks and looked extremely nervous as the clock wore on. The mistakes which they spent hours ironing out at the SAI Centre on Bengaluru returned and they ended up paying a heavy penalty. Coach Graham Reid in his post match press conference admitted the team often struggles to handle pressure in big matches and hiring a mental conditioning coach is a top priority in the coming months.

The World Cup also showed how India is still a side that still relies heavily on individual brilliances and are miles away from being tactically and strategically astute as a team. While having player/ players of high individual skills is indeed a blessing, hockey is a team game and success or defeat is generally defined by how they perform as a unit. Even if one department malfunctions, the system can collapse, like it did on Sunday. Reid and Hockey India have plenty of holes to plug once they sign off with the classification matches in Rourkela.