CHENNAI: World No 2 India earned as many as 20 penalty corners against Oman, who are ranked 40 in FIH junior men's rankings, in their second Pool B match of the Hockey Men's Junior World Cup at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. Only five of them were converted into goals by the hosts even as they thrashed their opponents 17-0. In their first match versus Chile, they got six penalty corners and a couple of them were converted by the team.
Conversion rate of penalty corners plays an important role in modern day field hockey and more often than not it turns out to be a decisive factor. Coming into the tournament, it was an area to be addressed for the junior Indian team. Ahead of the event, they finished runners-up at the Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia losing to Australia in the final. Out of 53 PCs they earned in the competition, they converted only eight and the same was discussed in the build up to the Junior World Cup. India coach PR Sreejesh admitted the area is a cause of concern and said, "We trained hard after that tournament (Sultan of Johor Cup). I am not going to give you any excuses for the lack of scoring but when you look at the other teams there their scoring rate was not that great because of some issues with the ground."
Sreejesh's words appear to be true at least looking at what has transpired in Chennai and Madurai so far after the two rounds. The issue is not only ailing India but other top teams including world No 1 and defending champions Germany. In fact, the hosts boast of a superior conversion rate than other top 5 teams except Spain. Their conversion rate after two matches is 26.92 which is more than Germany (18.18), Argentina (3rd ranked, 17.45) and Netherlands (5th, 12.5). Spain (4th) leads the chart in that aspect converting five of the 10 short corners they have earned in two matches.
As their head coach asserted, India would definitely eye an improvement when they take on Switzerland in their last Pool match in Madurai on Tuesday but former India drag-flicker VR Raghunath has a different take on the issue. "It's a good ratio in my opinion (India's conversion rate)," Raghunath told this daily.
Raghunath, who developed drag-flicking skills in the later half of his career, firmly believed that the conversion rate will only improve as the tournament progresses. "Most of the top teams do not want to reveal their PC variations during the group stage. As you are being analysed by your opponents, the teams prefer to keep their variations for later stages when it matters the most," he opined.
The former India defender also said that the low conversion of PCs has nothing to do with the fact that the tournament is meant for junior boys. "Most of the players are under-21 and they have enough strength. It has nothing to do with age. During group games, points are important and as long as these top teams are earning points, they prefer to keep their strategies secret for knockout matches. We did that when I was the drag-flicking expert of the team. These all are mind games as drag-flickers usually take safe or direct PCs early in the tournament. Come the knockout stage, I am quite sure the spectators will be able to see wonderful PCs with brilliant variations," he signed off.
Another factor that could have been hurting India is Araijeet Singh Hundal's shoulder injury, which had ruled the drag-flicker out of the tournament forcing Sreejesh's team to look out for other possible options. One of the good things that has happened to India in their campaign so far is that they have not conceded a goal yet and are only a win away from making it to the quarterfinals. Hopefully, they have quite a few tricks up their sleeves to convert more PCs, as Raghunath said, when they play the knockouts.