Hockey Men's Junior World Cup: India to meet Poland with an eye on quarter-final berth

The Indian men's junior hockey team will look to seal its place in the quarter-finals of the FIH Hockey Men's Junior World Cup when it meets Poland on Saturday.

The Indian men's junior hockey team is on the back of a 13-1 drubbing of Canada and would be keen to carry the winning momentum forward.

India, who are the defending champions of the Men's Junior World Cup, were off to a horrid start after losing to France in their opener, but quickly bounced back to thump Canada.

Read: Asian Champions Trophy: Manpreet Singh to lead 20-member Indian men's hockey squad

Speaking to journalists about India's next match against Poland and on the importance of a win, chief coach Graham Reid said the win against Canada had put the Indian team in a good space mentally.

"It was really important to get to a good start against Canada and finish away with some good goals," he said. "It is a very important win from a mental perspective, ahead of the match against Poland."

Reflecting on the team's performance at the ongoing Men's Junior World Cup so far, Reid said:

"We are creating enough opportunities. We need to work on the conversion rate. We are a bit leaky at the back. We need to be stronger and get in front a little more. We were better against Canada. The best way to learn is to make mistakes. We learned from our loss to France. We missed out on this learning phase for a couple of years due to the pandemic, but it was good, we learned quickly."

Indian hockey team all set to face big guns

As the teams advance to the knock-out stages, they will be geared up to meet strong teams from other groups who are also title contenders. Speaking on the prospect of facing teams like Belgium in the knockout stage, Reid said to win a World Cup, a team must be ready to beat any team.

"If we beat Poland on Saturday, we may face Belgium in the next stage," he said. "But to win the Hockey Men's Junior World Cup, you must beat everybody. After losing to France, it became clear to us that we have to win every game to win back-to-back titles. It gives us a bit of clarity."

Meanwhile, the Indian junior men's team's vice-captain Sanjay, who has scored hat-tricks in both matches, spoke on his learnings from the tournament so far.

"Coaches keep telling us what new techniques we can employ," he said. "What other teams are trying out, and I am working on them. Some things are working for me. I also spoke with Harmanpreet Singh, the Indian men's senior team defender, who gave me some tips. I would be implementing them."