Had India drawn, if not won its match against England in the Hero Honda FIH World Cup at the Maj. Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Saturday night, it would have kept its slim hopes of making it to the last four alive. But a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the European champion left it with only mathematical chances of getting there.

I believe where England scored over India was its players’ greater control over fundamentals of passing and trapping besides working as a unit. Simple stated, it meant that more often than not, when an England player passed the ball, he would find a team-mate running to be at the right place to receive the ball.

Inda made a deliberate attempt to slow down the pace of the game – and therefore control the flow in the first half. There was a method to breaking into the striking circle with long passes but there was not much talent on show inside the scoring area. Each time a striker could not get a clear view of the goal, he would end up losing the ball to the England defence.

And when that discipline was forgotten and almost rustic scrimmages became the order of the day early in the second half, England was able to wrest control with an assured defence that sparked swift counterattacks that led to a couple of goals by Ashley Jackson – one off a penalty corner and the other to end a melee.

Yet, in the fightback that India launched after being 0-3 down, we could see glimpses of the future. Sardara Singh, Bharat Chikara, Dhananjay Mahadik, Gurbaj Singh, Shivendra Singh, Gurwinder Singh Chandi and Sandeep Singh showed that they could be shaped into a good unit in the coming years. There are young men who are ready to play their hearts out.

Sardara Singh and Gurbaj Singh played their roles adequately enough and can be the mainstays for some time to come while Dhananjay Mahadik and Bharat Chikara guarded the left flank with zeal. And though Sandeep Singh’s skills in defence can always be improved, his presence becomes important because he is India’s best drag-flicker.

There are many who do not think that Gurwinder Singh Chandi is ready to don the striker’s mantle yet but the lad showed that he has a good ball sense and the knack of figuring in the frame at crucial moments. He just needs to increase the frequency of such appearances and make his presence felt as a scorer in the manner in which he tapped in India’s first goal on Saturday.

Each of these lads just needs to focus on sharpening his own game – and enhance his ability to work with the others in the squad – rather than worry about anything else. If they need to secure player contracts, they can always have some former players handle that rather than get their feet themselves as Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh did a few weeks before the World Cup.

If all those who care for hockey – and believe me you, this is not a small number – can lend their shoulders to the wheel, it will move in the right direction. We have seen a groundswell of support for Indian hockey, despite the team’s successive losses to Australia, Spain and England after that heady start against Pakistan. We have some talented players, too.

Believe me, it won’t be long before we figure in the top four bracket again.

This piece was written for www.stick2hockey.com

The Indian players set off on a victory lap after beating Pakistan 4-1 in their opening match at the FIH World Cup

The man of the match Sandeep Singh scored once in each half while Shivendra Singh and Prabhjot Singh pumped in one each as India piled immense pressure on the Pakistan defence. Yet, it was really the Indian midfield that won the day and helped India win 4-1. And none shone brighter than Bharat Chikara who gave Rehan Butt little elbow room to showcase his magical skills.

In a sport in which the focus is usually on the strikers and, less frequently, the goalkeepers, it needs a command performance from a midfielder to steal the thunder from under everyone else’s nose. And Bharat Chhikara did just that – and to make things so much better, the Haryana player with just over 50 caps did it without much ado.

To say that he shadowed Rehan Butt would be taking away the sheen from Bharat Chikara’s efforts. For shadowing entails being in the slipstream of the rival player. On the contrary, the tough left-half was half a step ahead of the Pakistan spearhead and almost intuitively anticipated his every twist, every feint right through the game.

It is another matter that the midfielder thought his performance was quite average. “I gave Rehan Butt some room early on and I think I could have been better,” he told me after the match when the media largely ignored him and pursued the scorers. “I got a fair idea of how he thinks and moves from the match in the Champions Challenge I in Argentina in December last.”

But he can draw heart from the fact that coach Jose Brasa picked him and Sardara Singh as the Indian players of the night. “We were better than Pakistan in all our lines – be it defence, midfield or forwards – but I know that we could have played better,” he said. “Having said that, I believe Bharat and Sardara led the team’s collective effort.”

Truth to tell, the others in the Indian midfield played their hearts out as well, falling back deep to defend but showing no hesitation in pressing forward and forcing Pakistan to be on the backfoot much of the time, ensuring that goalkeeper P R Sreejesh was rarely tested.  On a night when the woodwork favoured India by blocking two of Sohail Abbas’s penalty corner strikes, the intensity that Bharat Chikara displayed was matched by his team-mates.

Sardara Singh, for example, showed nerves of steel and a large heart as he played the pivotal role in ensuring that many Pakistan moves did not assume dangerous proportions and the Indian attack was well fed. Arjun Halappa and Dhananjay Mahadik had their moments as well on a night when India’s collective effort – and this included the pressure exerted from the stands — outweighed Pakistan.

This piece was written for www.stick2hockey.com