Has India been as good as its third place in men's hockey at the Tokyo Olympics? Could they have done better overall? Did the 5-4 win against Germany perhaps cheer them up a bit for an up-and-down performance in the bronze medal game?
There are no easy answers to those questions, but the bronze medal is in line with what was expected of this team. It was never easy for him, but watching him complete it gives one hope as to where the trajectory of this current crop of Indian players is going. Here are the key reasons for India's success in Tokyo.
Conditions were hot and gloomy at Tokyo's Oei Stadium during the hockey competition. It was not unusual for India to play eight matches in a span of 13 days, but they played five of these matches in the morning session, including two of the three in the knockout stage.
To last the length, literally fighting it out against a fit German team in the final quarter of his campaign, the optimum fitness level was needed. It has been a constantly improving subject with this Indian team, and most of the credit should go to the coaches who have worked with them in the last Olympic cycle. For the time being, salutes to head coach Graham Reid, scientific advisor Robin Arkel and the rest of the support staff for keeping the players fresh throughout the fortnight.
Best free-scoring team in a long time
Since Reid took over in 2019, India have built a reputation as a team with goals. He's always had personal skills, but he's added good penalty corner (PC) conversions and clever deflection skills in recent times.
The numbers bear it out - India scored 25 goals in eight matches at the Tokyo Games. As the goals-per-game average goes, it is the best ever since 1980, when India scored 43 for six. However, it was an empty field, so to put it aside, you have to go back to 1960s Rome, when an Indian team averaged more than three goals per game (18 out of five then). And it was not easy for them with a draw here – New Zealand beat them in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games in 2018, Japan is the Asian Games gold medalist, Spain has been to two Olympic finals in the last 25 years. This left India with Australia, Argentina, Great Britain, Belgium and Germany. India lost only to Australia and Belgium, and scored in both games, even briefly taking a 2–1 lead against world champions Belgium in the semi-finals.
Look around at team photos, and you won't find any impressive singles impressions among players. Yes, people like PR Sreejesh, Manpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Birender Lakra have been around for a while, but they don't necessarily carry the aura of some of the superstars of recent years.
Reid took a gamble with some of the younger players on the team for Tokyo – 12 of the 18 were selected, including alternates on Olympic debuts – and was delivered at the highest work rate he would have picked them for. One of the great examples of supporting a working player was Amit Rohidas, whose performance in the final game as First Rush was exemplary. Sreejesh was brilliant, he made a total of nine saves, but Germany found joy just once from 13 pc, so was Amit's courage to charge from Germany's drag-flicker just below the first line of attack.
Reid also used his options well - Simranjit Singh and Varun Kumar joined the main team in successive matches against Spain and Argentina respectively, and scored the opening goals for India. Simranjit was benched for the semi-finals, but returned to the squad for the bronze medal match, and made an impact with two top strikes.
Like other overseas coaches in recent years, Reid has strived to make himself and his family part of the expanding team culture. His wife, when she joins him at camp, is known to speak English willingly and take sessions for players on exile. Apart from being a reputed coach in hockey, Reid himself has also been brutally honest, be it with his players or with the media. That transparency has helped.
If you ignore Australia's defeat, India remained on course in all the games in Tokyo 2020. Even in the semi-finals, which they lost 5–2, they came back down by a goal, only to be numerically behind in the final quarter. A very solid knock.
It was important to get back his wits about himself after Australia's results were crucial, and he showed some style with a 3–0 win against Spain and a 5–3 win against Japan.
Perhaps where India have now led under Reid, he was the best example of the two matches he won in the second week of the competition. Against Great Britain, under pressure to allow the opponent to draw a goal back, he kept his guts up despite the deck of cards, scoring a goal at the break to kill it. On Thursday, he reacted brilliantly to go down two goals, with four goals in eight minutes on either side of half-time to completely reverse the momentum of the match.