India have struggled to score goals from penalty corners in the ongoing FIH Hockey World Cup, being hosted in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. The men's team face New Zealand in their crossover fixture to decide who will play Belgium in the Quarterfinals, and ahead of their mega clash, former drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh has lent his expertise on why the conversion rate from penalty corners has dropped for India.
"Defending penalty corners has become an art in recent years. Every team now has video analysis to study how the opponents take their PCs. They will analyse how the drag flickers of the opposition team flick and how they use variations, and accordingly train to prevent goals," Rupinder told PTI in an interview.
Citing better defensive tactics as the major reason, Rupinder also credited India's improvement in this field. "It is the same in the case of India. We are also very good at defending penalty corners as we saw against England (in this World Cup). Our first rushers, Amit Rohidas and Manpreet Singh are very quick to rush out and close the angle," said Rupinder, who formed a potent pair of drag flickers in the Tokyo Olympics, along with current India captain Harmanpreet Singh.
"It's a World Cup, not any international tournament or bilateral Test. Every team will try to score the most from PCs and, at the same time, they will try to defend the PCs the best they can. So, we cannot say the effectiveness of drag flickers has gone down in hockey because the decrease in conversion rate is due to better defending of PCs than before. You can't help it and it is the way it is," the 32-year-old said.
"But it is not that drag-flickers are not going to score goals. They will score. It is about timing, if there is coordination between the injector, stopper (of the ball) and drag-flicker, then goals will be scored."
Despite being among the best drag-flickers in the world, India's star Harmanpreet Singh has had a quiet tournament, having scored just one goal from PCs — against Wales in India's final pool match on Thursday. But Rupinder advised him and the other Indian drag-flickers to just stay calm and positive, saying that goals should come from their sticks.
"It happens in high-pressure situations, they should remain calm and positive. I think they have not done anything wrong and they should not have negative thoughts."
