India won the seventh edition of the Men's Asian Champions Trophy after they beat Malaysia 4-3 in the final, at the Major Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai on Saturday evening.
En route to being crowned champions, they remained unbeaten and drew only one game, against Japan in the group stage but thrashed the same opponents 5-0 in the last four to secure a final berth.
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Having clinched their fourth title, India are now the most successful team in the history of the tournament.
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TSN takes a look at the three talking points from India's Asian Champions Trophy triumph.
How India is finally executing the strategy laid out by coach Craig Fulton?
The Asian Champions Trophy was the perfect stage to fine-tune the team ahead of the 2023 Asian Games.
India had struggled to express themselves in the Four-Nation tournament in Barcelona as they managed to win just one match. Battered and bruised they returned to India and were looking forward to the Asian Champions Trophy in home comforts.
Fulton's defence-first approach is starkly different from Graham Reid's high-press tactics. The midfielders are the pillars of the system and they often looked like a fish out of water in Spain as they were frequently getting caught in transition.
They have been assigned a dual role which is more akin to a box-to-box midfielder. When India are in charge, they will push further up the pitch but have to fall back and defend while chasing.
The transition from offence to defence becomes an integral part of this style and the midfielders took their time to completely imbibe the philosophy. Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad are learning the trade and if their performance in the Asian Champions Trophy are anything to go by they will only get better with time.
"Under Reid it was all about playing attacking hockey. But under Fulton, he believes in defending to win. Under Reid we used to play full press hockey but Fulton feels that if we press full then countering may be a problem for us,” Nilakanta said.
“So in Spain we were a bit confused. But as we played, we learnt and now every player has understood the style of play. So every player now has a dual role. I play as an attacking midfielder and I also switch to a defensive midfielder as and when needed and I can replace an attacking midfielder or a defensive midfielder as per the situation," he added.
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Why fitness remains the foundation rock of modern hockey?
It is certainly not easy to play a dual role in modern hockey, especially when teams are trying to penetrate the circle with minimum but effective passing.
The system demands that the players remain at the peak of their physical stamina throughout the match as they require to cover more ground than ever. And Chennai's sweltering weather further added to the misery despite playing all their matches under lights.
However, Indian players hardly looked out of gas and even in the final against Malaysia, they were always ready to go the extra mile to outnumber the opponents in every zonal battle.
It is never easy to stage a comeback from being 3-1 down in the final to win it 4-3 but Fulton's troops showed exceptional fitness and clarity of thought to win their record fourth title.
How did Harmanpreet Singh perform in set pieces?
Harmanpreet Singh is definitely among the best drag flickers in the world. He emerged as the top-scorer in the Asian Champions Trophy with nine goals to his name and every one of them was from a penalty corner.
However, ahead of the Asian Games the Indian skipper will definitely look to improve his conversion rate. Against Japan in the group stage, India were held to a 1-1 draw, despite earning a whooping 14 penalty corners, as only one of them found the back of the net.
Against Pakistan, things improved as he converted the first two but things went downhill later on.
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“My role is such that I have a responsibility (to score). You also have the right to ask,” said Harmanpreet after the Pakistan match.
Moreover, the penalty miss against South Korea showed that although the skipper is firing there's definitely room for improvement ahead of the Hangzhou Games in China.
“Every match, you want to do your best. You, at least, try. That is what the team does. What’s next is more important than what has already happened. The same is true of my drag flicks. If I miss, I know I’ll get more chances to score, and I’ll try my best,” said Harmanpreet.
You definitely get more chances to score, but against the best at the highest level, even a single miss can prove costly. And with less than a year remaining before the Paris Olympics, the need of the hour is to be clinical as possible.
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