Indians have nothing to lose, everything to gain

The Dutch have proved themselves time and again in the dying moments, thanks to their excellent mobility and the capacity to penetrate through the best of opponents’ defence. But the Indian side, which has played every major country with dominance in the recent past, does have a better edge over the host to thwart them if only they can capitalise on the opportunities coming their way. What they need to do is to channelise their resources in such a way that they can choke the Dutch movement on the left and not allow any room to their attackers. In other words, the Indians should play more compactly and definitely with depth in their defence, not forgetting their recent performance in Australia — they scored and conceded equal number of goals.

The team also has to work out a strategy and not move in tune with the ball as it would be a Dutch ploy to create an opening for their attackers, especially Nooijer, who is also known as a check point, and Charlie without whose touch no attack is built or executed. Their main objective will be to draw the Indians out of their half and create better openings.

The Indian team has nothing to lose but a lot to gain with their opening match. Like always, it is going to be an open match with a lot of free space for both teams — the Indians relish it, I know — to exploit. The best option for India would be to keep the ball possession in the opponents’ half near the wings, especially on the right side, where both Balli and Dhillon are skilful enough to do the job with surprise counters.

The Indian team, which is popular for its counter-attacks with Pillay and Gagan Ajit combining well until execution, should make themselves available for any surprise interception and then go for an allout attack as they will still have enough defenders behind.

Holland, who are known to play more of passing and compact hockey, have changed to open and free-attack game in recent times. That kind of game provides India with a better chance of overtaking the hosts in the opening game of the silver jubilee edition of Champions Trophy.