Tokyo 2020: Indian men's hockey team all dressed up and ready to go

Kolkata: The last time Indian men’s hockey team won an Olympics gold was four decades back in Moscow 1980, but the romance around it gets whipped up every time the Games are around the corner. It’s going to be no different this time when dashing midfielder Manpreet Singh leads an in-form team in Tokyo in less than a month from now.

It was in April that India, currently ranked fifth in the world, returned unbeaten from their first FIH Pro League away campaign with a 3-2 shootout win against Rio 2016 champions Argentina 3-0 in their backyard. Clubbed in a strong Pool A with No.1 ranked Australia, Argentina, Spain, New Zealand and hosts Japan, India will not find the going easy but they struck an upbeat note ahead of their departure for Tokyo next month.

‘‘The team has stuck together and been hard at training despite the cancellation of Olympics last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are working on basic skills, variations in penalty corners as well as ways of circle penetration,’’ skipper Manpreet said during a joint zoom interaction with vice-captains Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra and Graham Reid, the Australian Chief Coach of the men’s team from their ongoing camp in Bengaluru in south India.

The Indian men’s hockey team enjoys an unique position in the history of Olympics, having had an uninterrupted sequence of six gold medals from 1928, while they boast of the biggest haul of eight of them so far. In the past few decades, it has often been a case of flattering to deceive, including the last edition in Rio where they began well but finished eighth in final standings.

Does the pressure of expectations of a billion people in hockey, the only medal prospect in any team sport, weigh down the Indian team ? Reid, who had been like a father figure to the current unit, said: ‘‘Pressure is something which you bring upon yourself. I had once interacted with a sports psychologist who said change the channel in case of pressure and try to control the controllables. That’s what I tell the boys.’’

A bugbear for the Indian team in international campaigns had been their conversion rate from penalty corners. Asked about it, Reid said: ‘‘Conversions have become tougher after certain rule changes, which allows teams to rush out. We also aim to improve the quality of our circle penetration.’’

While Manpreet will be wearing the captain’s armband, veteran goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh - whom Hockey India nominated for Rajiv Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour in the country, on Saturday - had been an inspirational character in the team.

‘‘He’s not a very funny guy, rather serious as the world knows him,’’ Reid said in zest, before adding: ‘‘He lifts the group up from the back if things are not going well. It’s nice to have someone like him who lends a contagious confidence to the team.’’

The team has a good mix of experience and youth, what with as many as 10 debutants in the squad. Isn’t that one too many? ‘‘The 10 debutants have played together in Junior World Cup and have progressed tremendously in the last 18-24 months. Australia, meanwhile, has nine debutants,’’ he said.

Both the men and women’s squads, to be led by Rani Rampal, will be leaving for Tokyo on July 17.

HOCKEY IN TOKYO

Dates: July 24 to August 5, 2021

Venue: Oi Hockey Stadium, Japan.

Defending champions: Argentina

Altogether 12 teams in the tournament will be divided into two groups of six, with each team initially playing round-robin games within their group. After the round-robin stage, the top four teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals. The two semi-final winners meet for the gold medal match, while the semi-final losers play in the bronze medal match.