Exclusive: Indian Hockey Eves Teeming with Loads of Self-Belief: Coach Harendra Singh

The Indian women’s hockey team is riding high after a highly encouraging performance in the Bhubaneshwar leg of the 2024-25 Pro League. The national hockey eves brought a lot of joy among hockey lovers with their fighting solitary goal over higher ranked Germany as well as a memorable shootout win over Olympic champions and world number one Netherlands.

The manner in which the Harendra Singh-coached side played in the latter part of the Bhubaneshwar leg made many of us believe that this team is a far better team than their current world number nine ranking suggests. Indian women’s team chief coach Harendra Singh, who is currently in Panchkula keeping a close watch on the 15th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship, talked about India’s stunning shootout victory over the Dutch, improvement areas among others in an exclusive interview to Hockey Passion.

Excerpts:

Can you throw your perspectives on the Indian women’s hockey team’s first leg 2024-25 Pro League journey?

Playing 8 matches in 11 days was exceedingly challenging and my girls deserve credit for standing up to this schedule and coming up with strong performances. When you are playing 8 matches in such a short span of time – your fitness-levels, mental status and decision-making hold the key. At times, your decision-making can go amiss owing to the fatigue factor – so staying focused on a consistent basis is not easy. The Pro League first phase was a mixed package outcome-wise – I’m pretty chuffed not with the results, but with the way we played. I think we should have won two more matches, especially against England and Spain. The first leg tie against which we lost 0-4 to Germany was one of the worst games the team played as we turned complacent after playing the four games against England and Spain.

Our objective was to glean 12-15 points from the Bhubaneshwar leg and finish among the top five so that we stand a good chance of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and we came close to achieving them. We have learnt a lot from the phase 1 of the Pro League, especially technically, and we would keep plugging away. I reckon top teams know what we are capable of and have a lot of respect for my team.

How would you trace your journey from the Europe leg of the 2023-2024 Pro League when you took charge as national eves coach for the second time?

It’s has been a fantastic journey so far. I was not expecting much in the Europe leg of the 2023-24 Pro League since I took charge on April 6, 2024. I think we made progress in the Antwerp and London legs and could have won one game against England and another against Germany. But our biggest challenges were lack of desired fitness levels and injuries. After playing the eight games, we realized that we have to improve our fitness levels before we talk about tactics, strategy, etc. The girls responded to the team’s needs and worked really hard. I think we have achieved 60-70% of what we set out to attain – hockey is always demanding and there is always a room for improvement.

We are in the right direction, in terms of fitness. I thought we defended really well against the Netherlands in the second leg in the first half and in the second half, we know we are going to get some room, some space we were looking and we will score and that’s what we precisely did.

What’s your take on the evolution of Deepika Sehrawat as a drag-flicker & forward?

Deepika has immense potential to become a player like Rani Rampal and the way she is playing, expectations are bound to be high and as a coach it’s my job to ensure she keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground and delivers consistently. As far as drag-flicking is concerned, Deepika is a big plus for the team. For any drag-flicker, taking care of the body is crucial because if you don’t take care of the muscle and the bones which involve, you can get injured very frequently. So staying injury-free would be key for her – to me, Deepika comes across as a complete athlete.

Only 2 teams have beaten the Netherlands in last two years or so – Argentina beat them 3-2 in the 2024-25 Pro League at Santiago Del Estero and Belgium pipped them 2-1 in the 2023-24 Pro League at Utrecht. How would describe Indian women’s monumental shootout win over the Dutch?

We know the kind of hockey we wanted to play and strategically, I think we are far better than the Dutch in both games. We understand some of the areas the Dutch don’t like and we wanted to explore that area. The win is not a personal joy for me but more about seeing the smiles on the faces of my girls. Playing in front a strong home crowd also helped. Beating a world number one side provides with you an enormous amount of self-confidence. I know my girls have the desired fitness levels and skill-wise we are on par with any top foreign team. So when you have skills and fitness, what we need to combine them with winning mentality, attitude, self-belief, and team belief. Indian women do not deserve to be ranked 9th in the world and it is unfortunate.

What are the improvement areas the Indian hockey eves are focused on for the future?

I want my girls to keep pulling in the hard yards. The focus would be on improving our work rate inside the ‘D’ irrespective of whether we are defending or attacking. We must make the most of translating half-chances into goals – the way Baljit Kaur scored off a Sharmila Devi pass – that’s the kind of clinical finishing I would like to see in my strikers. International hockey is all about the position and finishing the one touch because no team is going to give you two or three touch, so the first touch is very important. If you are in the circle, occupy the area, which will give you the good result with minimum touches.

Indian goalkeeper Savita Punia has been a wonderful servant of Indian women’s hockey – she recently became the second women player to make 300 international appearances. Your thoughts.

It’s tough to explain Savita’s contribution to Indian women hockey. Playing 300 internationals in women’s hockey is indeed a big deal as playing a similar number of matches in men’s hockey is still easy. I must applaud Savita’s burning desire, hunger to excel. She has got married and her husband is based in Canada and she has made a lot of sacrifices to serve the nation with distinction. I have huge respect for Savita and I hope she would continue to make us proud in future as well.

The Indian women team’s forwardline is overflowing with talents with a nice blend of experience and emerging youngsters. How do you see this problem of plenty?

We have 12 forwards in my team and they all bring so much to the team table. We are going to select only five out of 12 at any given time. Picking players is never easy with so much talent available. I gave debut opportunity to Rituja Pisal and she scored on her debut against England – same was the case with Sakshi Rana against Spain – it means they are knocking on the selection door.

What are the international engagements that are lined up for the Indian hockey eves in 2025?

We are off to Australia on April 20th for a Five Test Series at Perth and we return home on May 7th. In June, we head to London, and subsequently to Antwerp and Berlin for the Europe leg of the 2024-25 Pro League matches against Australia, Argentina, Belgium and China. We are planning a Europe exposure tour after the Pro League and also feature in the 2025 Women’s Asia Cup for which the itinerary is yet to be announced.

Image Credit: Hockey India