Deepak Thakur lacked scoring power

On the face of it, India seem to have done well to get into play-off for the bronze medal in the Champions Trophy, which is world hockey?s premier annual tournament. But those who follow the game know and realise that Indian hockey is really in doldrums right now.

If you ask me, India were lucky to finish fourth after the league matches. It was almost as if India were content with a draw for that they thought that?s what they needed for a fourth place and the right to play for bronze.

On the other hand, Pakistan might be demoralised by 0-3 defeat to Spain, since the hosts had set their hearts on winning the title. But now they may well go all out to seal at least a bronze, and that too against arch-rivals, India.

In my book, the 1-1 draw against New Zealand was a setback. As for the Kiwis, they may well have been denied a well-deserved win, as the Indians got a penalty stroke, which the New Zealanders were very unhappy about. Having said that, the Kiwis must learn to take that in their stride because umpiring decisions, however unpalatable, have to be accepted.

A slight error in their match against Kiwis and it could have been a disaster. In fact, had it not been for the penalty stroke India may well have lost this match.

Further, when the score was levelled, India went back on defence and were simply trying to keep the score thus. These are the kinds of situations in which many teams, especially India, lose. That defensive approach can become a disaster. And we have suffered on account of that so many times in the past. Certainly the team management knows that, and should try to get the team to be more active in such circumstances.

Also, the team seemed to have assumed that a draw was enough, because Germany were bound to lose by a big margin. It turned out that Germany won 4-3 and lost out only on goal average.

For the third successive Champions Trophy, India will clash with Pakistan for the bronze medal. The last two times, India went down to their neighbours, even though in Amstelveen, India had a great win in the league.

Pakistan have definitely looked better than India, but it now remains to be seen whether the Indian players, as also the team management, can raise their level to give some hope for India in the coming months.

To be honest, the Indian forwards have been found wanting in almost all the matches. Even in the win over Germany, the team was poor in front of the goal. Adam Sinclair has played well only in patches. That is okay if he is a replacement player, which means the bench strength is fair. But as a mainline player, Sinclair and even Deepak Thakur have lacked scoring power.

Often when India scored, it was more on account of a blunder by the rival team.

Even in defence, Dilip Tirkey has not got the kind of support he needs.

One final fling at a medal is still left, and my fear is that if we get that, we might simply gloss over all that is wrong with this team. And believe me, there is a lot wrong there. (PTI)