Paris Olympics: India’s hockey team enters home stretch by taking on its kryptonite, Australia

The last time India toured Australia for a Test series, in late 2022, it was to ‘desensitise’ the players against the Kookaburras.

“To make ourselves understand that we are good enough to beat them when we play well,” then-coach Graham Reid had said. “We need to make sure our game is bulletproof.”

The reason to use that expression is because, for a while now, Australia has been the Indian men’s hockey team’s Kryptonite. There was just an aura around them that somehow weakened India.

Two results spring to mind immediately: The 7-1 thrashing in the group stage of the Tokyo Olympics and just over a year later, a 7-0 hammering in the final of the Commonwealth Games. Both those times, the Indian team were near the top of their game and yet, against the Aussies, came undone.

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That is why Craig Fulton, the current head coach, calls this upcoming tour – starting Saturday in Perth – a litmus test for where his team currently stands on the path to the Paris Olympics.

“Obviously everyone knows that Australia is like India’s bogey team in a way. It’s very difficult to beat them. They are probably a bogey team for many except for Germany, I suppose. But it’s a good challenge,” Fulton told The Indian Express before departing for Australia.

Harmanpreet Singh-led squad will play five Test matches against Aran Zalewski’s Australia, all of them at the Perth Hockey Stadium. The games take on additional importance because India and Australia are placed in the same pool for Paris 2024.

Historically, India have a poor record against Australia. Since 2013, the two teams have met 43 times and Australia have won 28 of those with India winning just 8, and 7 matches being drawn. One of those 8 wins came when India toured Australia, the first outright victory against them in exactly six years. But even that was eventually in a 4-1 series defeat.

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Here's the schedule for Indian Men's Team tour of Australia starting on 6th April.

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“I think it’s a mental thing,” Fulton said, explaining why there have been issues against Australia. “To be honest, knowing the psyche of the Australians, they have that ruthless kind of mentality against most teams. But once you compete with them and really, really push them, then it gets very difficult for them. But if you aren’t ready for it in the first 20 minutes, and you go 0-2, 0-3 down, it’s a different game.”

“That’s when they are very good. So it’s kind of like you need to start well, compete well, consistently for long periods. And the longer the game goes on where it’s competitive, the more of a chance you have.”

In perhaps a sign that things might be changing, India competed superbly against the Kookaburras during the recent FIH Pro League encounters in Odisha. In the first match that was played in Bhubaneswar, the worst-case scenario that Fulton spoke about came true as Blake Govers scored twice in the second minute.

But India responded sensationally, scoring four straight in the first half to take a 4-2 lead. Australia, however, did the same to India in the second half in a bonkers 10-goal game. Despite the defeat, Fulton said it was nice to know that India could compete at that level, further backed up by a 2-2 draw in regulation time later in Rourkela.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been down in 90 seconds before. We’ve never scored four goals in 30 minutes as well. It was a really strange game, really good game for us till then. And then we made some mistakes in the second half, but that was also some tactical things that we can change,” Fulton said.

“I learned a few lessons about us and what we can do better. And the guys enjoyed that game. Then prepping for the second game against Australia, five minutes to go, we were 2-1 up. We made a mistake, 2-2, and lost the shootout. But at the same time, we were very good in that game. So I think we are slowly starting to make steps in the right direction playing the top teams.”

The lessons for Fulton from the Pro League largely centered around set pieces, on both ends. Defending penalty corners and keeping a high conversion rate in the set-piece situations is something that India have identified as an area to improve.

Fulton is still in the process of finalising the squad for Paris, but instead of narrowing the list down, he has opted to go with almost the entire core group, with 27 making the cut for the Perth tour. He hasn’t hesitated to experiment with different combinations, but the objective will still be to beat the mighty Australia in Australia.

Fulton enjoyed the tussles in Odisha, Australia coach Colin Batch described those contests as ‘incredible games’ and now, over the next week or so, the two master tacticians will look to find chinks in each other’s armour. For India, it is a chance to show Australia doesn’t have to be a bogey team anymore.

India vs Australia schedule (all matches in Perth):

Match 1: 6 April 2.00 pm IST

Match 2: 7 April 2.00 pm IST

Match 3: 10 April 3.00 pm IST

Match 4: 12 April 3.00 pm IST

Match 5: 13 April 2.00 pm IST

Live on Jio Cinema and Sports 18

India’s squad:

Goalkeepers: Krishan Pathak, Pr Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera

Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh (C), Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Sanjay, Sumit, Amir Ali

Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh (VC), Vivek Sagar Prasad, Shamsher Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Rajkumar Pal, Vishnukant Singh

Forwards: Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mohammed Raheel, Boby Singh Dhami, Araijeet Singh Hundal

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