Commonwealth Games 2014: Hockey - Australia vs India Preview

India’s penalty corner specialist VR Raghunath celebrates after scoring his second goal against Scotland.

Learning from mistakes

On the back of an impressive start to the tournament, a resurgent Indian side face a Herculean task as they square off against World Champions and current gold-medalists Australia in their next Group A clash at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre on Tuesday.

Ranked ninth in the world, India went on a goal-spree against hosts Scotland, dishing out a 6-2 hammering courtesy a brace each from Rupinder Pal Singh and VR Raghunath. Gurbaj Singh and Gurwinder Singh Chandi were also on target for the reigning CWG silver medalists. Australia too, looked their menacing best, having dispatched a hapless Wales side 7-1 with effortless ease.

Despite the victories, India has had a few nervy moments against both Wales and Scotland, letting through three sloppy goals as a result. India were guilty of conceding goals late into stoppage time at the World Cup as well. It is certainly one area which needs to be worked upon. Vice captain PR Sreejesh has been in outstanding form in front of the goal, saving shots from point-blank range, and he’d be hoping to continue his good work.

With a ticket to the 2016 Rio Olympics up for grabs at the upcoming Asian Games, Coach Terry Walsh has set ‘improvement’ as the main objective for this tournament with his initial focus on a last-four berth.

Time to prove detractors wrong

The Glasgow games present India with an opportunity to make a point to the doubters of the once-upon-a-time giants of the game, after a rather insipid World Cup in Hague earlier this year, where they could muster only a ninth-placed finish. Revenge could also potentially be on the players’ minds, when India suffered a humiliating 0-8 drubbing against Australia at the 2010 Commonwealth Games final in New Delhi. But compared to four years back, India are much better team, which was pretty evident in their 0-4 defeat to the same opposition at the World Cup as they fought back in the second half of the game.

After Australia, India are the favourites to progress through to the next round from their group, although mistakes can not be afforded at this stage, especially with South Africa posing an outside threat to India’s qualification hopes.

Conversion rate need to be bettered drastically and the half-chances buried, especially from the set-pieces. The Sardar Singh led Indian side will need to up the ante and raise their game to an altogether different level if they harbour any faint hopes of upsetting the mighty Aussies.

India will probably stick with the same team that started against Scotland.

Timings: The match starts on July 29 at 6.30 pm IST.