Young Indian team have made us proud at Pro League: Selector Yuvraj Walmiki

National selector Yuvraj Walmiki

From failing to make the quarter-finals of the recent FIH World Cup in January to going on to beat world champions Germany and World No. 1 Australia twice in back-to-back Pro League fixtures (March 10-15) at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela this week, the Indian hockey team has bounced back brilliantly.

And credit for this must go to the Harbinder Singh-led national selection committee, who picked a relatively young side after the poor show at the World Cup. The new look Team India first beat Germany 3-2 and followed it up with a 5-4 victory over Australia. In the return leg, they overwhelmed the Germans again (6-3) before rounding things off with a 4-3 win over Australia on Wednesday. The performance has catapulted India two places to fourth in the latest FIH rankings with Germany third and Australia in fifth spot.

"The selectors are extremely happy and proud of our Pro League results at home. Some people felt that Germany rested five of their senior players and that Australia came here with their ‘B' team. If that's being taken into consideration then even we rested seven players from our World Cup team. So full credit to this young team and skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who led from the front with his drag-flick goals," selector Yuvraj Walmiki told mid-day on Thursday.

Also read: Indian men's hockey team climb to No. 4 in world rankings amid unbeaten streak in Pro League

"With inputs from outgoing head coach Graham Reid, we rested some of our senior players like Lalit Upadhyay, Akashdeep Singh and Amit Rohidas, who was the vice-captain of the World Cup side, and picked some talented youngsters in goalkeeper Pawan [21], defender Manjeet [21], midfielders Vishnukant Singh [20] and Rabichandra Singh [21] and forward Karthi Selvam [21]. We made Hardik Singh [24] the vice-captain and he did well. Pawan was impressive under the bar, alternating with PR Sreejesh, and Karthi scored two crucial goals," said Walmiki, adding that the selectors will soon shortlist a pool of 33 players from which the team for the Hangzhou Asian Games (September 23 to October 8) will be picked.