When the Indian men's hockey team travelled to Australia in December 2022, they scored 17 goals, conceded 25 and won one game out of five.
Jump to 2024, India managed only seven goals, conceded 17 and did not win even one of the five matches.
Winning a series in Australia is a tough proposition and this tour was not all about results. This was in preparation for the Paris Olympics, where India are hoping to upgrade their Tokyo bronze medal. But the above numbers do tell a story. Craig Fulton's India played a brand of hockey where the defence did decently, but the attack was toothless throughout.
The big problem
Fulton took as many as 10 forwards to Australia, in the hope that stiff competition among the Olympic hopefuls will propel the players to give their best. Unfortunately, not one Indian forward impressed. The numbers are also damning: just one goal was scored by a recognised forward -- Gurjant Singh -- and overall India could score only two field goals with the other one coming from Boby Singh Dhami.
The lack of goals and chances created by the forwards made a big impact. Indeed, Fulton's style is not best suited for forwards who love to race ahead at every given opportunity, but even then, it's disappointing to see experienced forwards like Mandeep Singh, Abhishek and Akashdeep Singh not being consistent enough.
There were many occasions where the attackers were either too slow in counter-attack situations or ended up committing silly errors like mistraps and miscontroling simple passes. It's understandable if it's just one or two matches, but to see such issues last an entire series is far from ideal.
Another stat to judge how Indian forwards faltered was the number of penalty corners that Australia won. In five matches, Australia had 31 penalty corners compared to India's 18. It shows how Australia's attackers managed to create more set-piece chances. Dragflick extraordinaire Jeremy Hayward was the big difference in the series, scoring seven goals, and it's because India gave him plenty of opportunities to have a go at their goalkeepers.
Fulton will hope his forwards will improve in the upcoming matches, especially in the Pro League away games. Going into the Olympics with out-of-form forwards can spell doom.
What did India do right?
While it's difficult to figure out the positives from a series like this, there was improvement on the defensive side of things, especially after the first two matches. The low block did its thing in making it difficult for Australia to find goals from open play. Key defenders Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh and Harmanpreet didn't start well but improved on the tackles and interceptions as the series progressed.
Fulton ensures his teams have strong defensive setups so it's natural he focussed on improving the defence. The goalkeepers also did their part, with a special mention to Suraj Karkera. In a way, Suraj is a third-choice goalkeeper who doesn't get many chances to play international matches.
This time, however, Fulton took him to Australia and Suraj impressed with his shot-stopping skills. There was a period in the fourth match where he pulled off four back-to-back saves and later continued his form in the final match as well.
Standout player for India
As mentioned above, Indian goalkeepers had a decent tournament, but legendary PR Sreejesh was clearly India's best player in this tour. He was the most in-form player going to Australia, having produced an outstanding show in the Pro League home matches. He continued the same form against Australia, where he pulled off several important saves, especially in set-pieces.
Generally, Olympic squads allow just only goalkeepers in the squad. Krishan Pathak has given a tough competition to his senior partner over the last few years but currently, Sreejesh is the clear favourite to take the only spot in the Olympic squad.
How to read the 0-5 series loss?
Losing all five matches might give the impression that there are serious problems with the team in an Olympic year, but that's not accurate. No doubt India should've done better in the five matches, but we don't need to read too much into the results as long as this tour served as a learning experience.
Fulton will hope that India will be better prepared when they face Australia at the Paris Olympics as both are placed in the same group. He would also have gotten a clear picture of the squad that will go to Paris basis this tour.
More importantly, despite the defeats, India competed and showed they could frustrate their opponents by stopping them from playing their natural game. Again, this wasn't done consistently and Australia did not commit big mistakes, but it's a gameplan that can work.
It worked against Australia and European teams at the Pro League and it worked at the Asian Games where India won the gold. There is no need for drastic changes to this team and Fulton will be glad that he got to play these five tough matches because now he has the opportunity to work on concerned areas.
What's next?
India will be back home and start their camp in Bengaluru ahead of Pro League away matches. They will travel to Belgium and England in the second half of May to play the rest of the Pro League matches.