Tough outing: That Mandeep Singh is yet to open his account in this edition of the hockey World Cup is hurting India.
| Photo Credit: AP

Four games, four losses, each worse than the previous one, at a venue that had been hitherto impenetrable, a fortress unconquered. Even by Indian hockey’s traditionally slow starting standards, this was a beginning to a crucial year that Craig Fulton and his boys would not have anticipated.

The Indian men’s hockey team played its first four – and only – home matches for 2026 at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela, a city that, once again, didn’t disappoint when it came to supporting the sport, turning out in full strength night after night, even for non-India matches, despite the disappointing results.

On field, however, it was a different story and the scoreline was only one part of it, perhaps the smallest one. For, what unfolded in the middle was nothing short of a horror show with and without the stick. “Home defeats always hurt more because there’s an expectation. We want to win. We did not go out tonight, or last night, or the game before that, or the game before that, not to win. That’s where the expectation and the frustration is real. (But) judge us on the big tournaments,” Fulton said after the 4-2 loss to Argentina on Sunday (February 15) night.

It was almost a desperate cry from the usually stoic and controlled South African to not judge him and his players in a hurry, to give them time. In his defence, the team has been in similar situations before and come out of it. The difference this time, however, is the limited time they have before the calls for action get louder than they already are. The World Cup — where India hasn’t made the semifinals since its lone triumph in 1975 — is in six months, the Asian Games with a ticket to LA28 at stake three weeks later. In between, there will only be the Pro League and possibly a four-nation competition, featuring New Zealand and Australia in Malaysia, to finalise the squads and combinations, address the concerns, work out the chinks and be in the right mental space.

“Judge us when everything is in sync. I do not want to be here, trust me, right where we are in terms of the results. But I do see the big picture. I see where we are now but I can see the pieces falling in place,” Fulton insisted. Belgium coach Shane McLeod insists that the world only sees 60 minutes of play; only the team knows what goes on on the inside for 23 hours, as it should be.

So it would be wise to leave the tactical, technical details to those who know best. But Fulton’s problems are augmented by the fact that the team has appeared a clueless gathering of switched-off automatons, unaware and unaffected by everything happening around even in those 60 minutes that the world gets to see. Everything has been in tatters – body, basics, mind, attitude. The first two should be easily fixed; the third hopefully with the arrival of Paddy Upton closer to the World Cup. The last needs urgent attention.

In the four matches, India has, barring a few moments, appeared completely out of place against both Belgium and Argentina with every department found lacking:

India appears completely out of place

Defence: Amit Rohidas, Jarmanpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Jugraj Singh were all guilty of being too casual, too erratic and too inconsistent. As the senior pros in the side, they needed to step up but none of them did, their errors increasing exponentially and conceding goals and PCs a little too easily. Harmanpreet was the biggest let down, the captain clearly struggling with both form and fitness, lacking power in his drag-flicks and generally cutting a sorry figure on the field.

Midfield: The least experienced area and it showed. Even the likes of Vivek Sagar Prasad and Nilakanta Sharma, regular India team members for a few years now, were unable to stitch together four consecutive passes without a turnover. Even someone like Hardik Singh made mistakes but, if one had to choose, he was the only one who showed any fight and form. Especially in the last two games, Hardik was everywhere, trying to do the job of 10 all alone but lacked any support.

Attack: Less said the better. Abhishek refuses to let go of his penchant for reverse hits, flicks and solo showboating; Selvam Karthi gave away more possession than he held; Mandeep and Sukhjeet were barely visible. Shilanand Lakra and Aditya Lalage were the saving grace, though not by much.

Goalkeeping: In a battle of two equally ordinary players, Pawan came off slightly better by the barest of margins. But both him and Suraj Karkera are no match for the rest of the world and it is the one department that India desperately needs to decide on, ASAP. The search for a successor to PR Sreejesh is still on.

The team clearly is not at optimum fitness, or even good enough to last two back-to-back matches at less than 100% intensity. Whether it’s the body refusing to obey the mind or a general lack of preparation and planning, the team’s basics were abysmal – back passes into empty space or, worse, to the opposition, faltering in their trapping and mispasses galore, beginners’ errors in defence, inability to earn PCs even inside crowded circles and leaving wide open spaces for rivals to easily move in and out of while not creating any for themselves. What made it worse was the team’s determined, positive starts in every game, only to lose steam and their senses as the matches wore on. Clearly the mind space needs equal attention.

Fulton’s faith

“Four losses is four losses but if you look behind those results, we’ve just come out of HIL, we’ve got a bigger squad, we’re trying to put together performances that we can be proud of. I think the effort was there… I know we’re not where we want to be but I know what they (the seniors) can do. There’s lots of things that I know we can do a lot better when we spend more time together,” Fulton reiterated.

He agreed there was pressure on the players but insisted it was good. “There’s selection, so that’s what we’re doing. So yeah, there’s pressure all the time. And it’s healthy, because it needs to drive a certain level of competition, otherwise what do we have? We’re doing the experiments now; after that, we don’t have time. There’s a selection camp in March which will give us the squad to play with Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia. Get that World Cup squad, Asian Games squad together, start to get our combinations ready for Pro League and go.”

His faith in his boys is commendable; for his and the team’s sake, hopefully they will reciprocate sooner than later.

Published – February 16, 2026 03:20 pm IST