Hockey: India look to cross over New Zealand hurdle

Smarting from a disappointing performance against Wales and hit further in their gut with in-form midfielder Hardik Singh being ruled out, India will be looking to regain their mojo against an upbeat New Zealand in their crossover game here on Sunday.

India’s worst fears came true on Saturday when Hardik, who injured his right hamstring at the end of England’s game last Sunday, failed to recover. Coach Graham Reid, who refused to reveal the true extent of the injury earlier in the week and was hopeful of the 24-year-old making it for the knockouts, was finally forced to call a replacement in Raj Kumar Pal. 

“Overnight we had to make the difficult decision of replacing Hardik Singh in the Indian team for Sunday’s match vs New Zealand and the subsequent World Cup matches,” said Reid in a statement. “While the injury was not as severe as the initial incident suggested, time was not on our side and after our thorough rehabilitation process and functional and on-field assessment today, it has been decided that we will replace Hardik with Raj Kumar Pal.”

While Hardik’s absence is indeed a blow to the Indians, they have enough class and experience, especially in the midfield, and should start as favourites against New Zealand. Former skipper Manpreet Singh is nearing 300 internationals while the evergreen Akashdeep Singh has earned over 200 caps. Their partners at the centre Nilakanta Sharma and Vivek Sagar Prasad are closing in on 100 internationals while Shamsher Singh has given a good account of his talent over the last couple of years.

The worry for India though is the connection between the midfield and attack. The midfield has done well in terms of ball possession, creating chances and circle penetrations but has often struggled to deliver the final ball, especially when defences are organised and disciplined. The times when they’ve been able to pierce the defences, the strikers have fumbled, often let down by poor decision making. 

New Zealand, who won an Olympic gold way back in 1976 but have managed a best finish of only seventh in World Cups, will be looking to prey on exactly that. They know it’s a match India has to win while they have nothing to lose. It’s this enormous pressure on India that the Black Sticks will be looking take advantage of, something which they are capable of. 

“We certainly go into the game as underdogs but confident underdogs, willing to be bold and put India under pressure,” said New Zealand coach Greg Nicol, a former South African player. “We are not here to make up the numbers, that's for sure. Whatever the result is, these players are going to leave everything out on the turf.”

India, who have beaten New Zealand 24 times in 44 occasions they’ve met, will be better served if they can keep their composure on Sunday. The raucous crowd and occasion can force them to abandon their plans, like it happened against Wales where they played into the opposition's hands. Thankfully, the mistakes didn’t end up causing an embarrassment. However, against New Zealand, who have have some fine players in defender Blair Tarrant, defensive midfielder Nick Ross, striker Simon Child and drag-flicker Kane Russell, there may be no room for such errors.