‘Every team will look to contain Harmanpreet’ PR Sreejesh

India skipper Harmanpreet Singh (right) celebrates scoring against Wales in the FIH World Cup last month. Pic/Hockey India

[popcorn number="19" desc="No. of goals conceded by India in six games at the recent FIH World Cup in Holland/Belgium" class="Default"]

Coming off a disappointing eighth-place finish at the recent Hockey World Cup, former India custodian PR Sreejesh believes the team needs to tighten its leaky defence and reduce its over-reliance on skipper Harmanpreet Singh at the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan (September 19 to October 4).

Harmanpreet netted eight goals in six World Cup games with his accurate drag-flicks.

"We need to be more focused on our defence. That's the important thing right now. The second thing is that Harmanpreet is going to be a target for every team, so they will come up with a plan to neutralise him. We need to work on some more variations from penalty corners," said Sreejesh during an online interaction organised by Sony Sports Network recently.

PR Sreejesh

India conceded 19 goals in six games at the World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium last month, which is why the two-time Olympic bronze medallist reckoned a return to man-marking could help address their defensive frailties.

"Earlier, we used to use man-marking, which was more transparent and easier for players to understand. Nowadays, we play with a very deep defence, focusing on zonal marking, which sometimes creates confusion since there maybe two or three opposition players in the same zone to mark. Teams like Pakistan and Malaysia, who have skilful players and are good in one-on-one situations, can capitalise on this. On the pitch, you need a lot more communication to handle zonal marking," explained the 38-year-old.

Despite the glaring weaknesses in defence, Sreejesh is confident India will finish on the podium and believes the quick turnaround from the World Cup to the Asian Games could work in the team's favour.

"The men's team is going to finish on the podium for sure. If we play our natural game, we will win a medal, since we have been dominating continental competitions in the last few years. There's just a three-week gap between the World Cup and the Asian Games, so the players will be super fit," said Sreejesh, who was part of India's gold medal-winning Asian Games squads in 2014 and 2022.