New Delhi: Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh on Saturday said the team needs to improve its penalty corner conversion before the FIH World League Final later in the year.
The Indians started their recent European tour with back-to-back victories over France, before overcoming Spain 2-1 in a three-match series.
The only blip in an otherwise successful tour was a 4-1 defeat in the first match against Spain. But, to their credit, the Indians make a strong comeback by emphatically winning the next two matches.
However, the old achilles heel of poor penalty corner conversion continues to dog the Indians as they managed to score only five goals from short corners in the five matches.
“We are in high spirits after the wins in the European tour and have come back with many learnings along with the weaknesses that need to be worked upon. I think we need to work on converting scoring opportunities through penalty corners and that will be our emphasis before the FIH World League Final later in the year,” Sardar said after arriving at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.
“The young players played exceptionally well and what is gradually adding to our strengths as we have a bigger pool of players to choose from before each tournament.”
High performance director and chief coach Roelant Oltmans, however, preferred to focus more on the positives.
“The team performed exceptionally well in the European tour, which proves that our players are ready to take on greater challenges,” the Dutchman said.
“The highlight was that we did not give away the ball possession easily to the opponents and, with the FIH Hockey World League Final scheduled to take place towards the end of this year, I hope the team does its best and displays high level performances.”
