India coach Sjoerd Marijne might have helped give international experience to a few budding youngsters, but his experiment hasn’t quite yielded success so far in the ongoing Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

After a 3-2 loss to Olympic champions Argentina in the first game, India on Sunday were held to a 1-1 draw by England.

After being edged by an Argentinian side that included nine members from their successful Olympic campaign, India put up a much better performance and were leading 1-0. However, their old follies returned to haunt them as England’s Matt Gleghorne struck a penalty stroke in the fourth quarter to help the defending champions earn a draw.

In both games, India put up a gritty display. They were quick on the counter-attack and defensively strong when it mattered. “The defending today was much better than yesterday’s match. That is what we asked the players, less penalty corners against us, which was good,” said India coach Sjoerd Marijne.

India, though, had only themselves to blame as they failed to convert as many as nine penalty corners which would have easily helped them put the game to bed.

With the likes of Rupinder Pal Singh and Harmanpreet Singh being rested, the onus was on Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas and Nilam Sanjeep Xess to step in and do the job. Rohidas was the star performer against Argentina as he converted two penalty corners. But against England, nothing seems to have worked.

Perform or perish

India’s execution while taking penalty corners was left wanting on Sunday. The lack of variations seems to be hurting India as they stepped up to take the penalty corners.

The onus on the young drag flickers was to step up and to stake their claim for spots in other major tournaments this year. Their showing on Sunday left a lot to be desired.

“We created more than enough penalty corners to win the match,” said Marijne.

“England’s goalkeeper was very good and the first runner had a lot of balls and that is why we created chances over and over again. But if you want to win such matches then you really must make a few conversions. Too bad we made such mistakes plus the inexperience also hurt us. We must learn from it,” Marijne added.

India must look at bringing in multiple drag flick specialists in the team because the modern-day hockey game has seen a sharp rise in penalty corner goals. Field goals have become difficult to execute as the speed the game increases.

Seniors need to step-up

Other than the penalty corners, though, India’s young brigade was not too shabby.

Eighteen-year-old Shailanand Lakra gave India the opening goal. Gurjant Singh and Mandeep Mor were keeping pace with their English counterparts and seemed up to the task. However, it was the senior players who seemed out of their depth. With the exception of captain Sardar Singh and goalkeeper Suraj Karkera, senior players such as SK Uthappa, Ramandeep Singh, Surender Kumar are yet to come to the party.

With an uneven performance by many in the playing XI, it was only natural that the pressure would soon break their resistance. England’s equaliser came after once such indecisive moment, where most players lost steam. It was a juncture in the game, when one would expect the senior players in the team to show more maturity and take control of proceedings. Unfortunately for India, it wasn’t to be.

Marijne, though, defended his players adding that his wards need to handle the pressure better if they hope to succeed.

“Every win or lose is a team effort,” said Marijne. “You can’t speak about juniors and seniors, it is one team. When you are a young player you don’t feel any pressure because you just want to play hockey. For them it is difficult to do that in every match. The senior players are under pressure which is also because now they must show the best performance,” he added.

Next up India face Australia, the top ranked team in the world. If the team does not come out all guns blazing, then it is bound to cost them dearly. The seniors must lead from the front if they are aiming for a top three finish in the tournament.