Hockey: India coach Craig Fulton begins plans for new Olympic cycle with juniors entering the squad

It’s a pleasant day in Bengaluru at the Sports Authority of India campus and Indian men’s team coach Craig Fulton is putting a set of hockey players under the wire. However, they’re not his usual charges, but a handful of junior players.

The South African has not had much time to rest. After his return from Paris where India won a second consecutive Olympic bronze medal, Fulton has gone right back into preparing for the new cycle that will carry him until Los Angeles 2028.

He has not let the intensity fall.

“We have a good squad [right now] but we need to bring some younger faces into the team,” said Fulton to Scroll.

“What we’re looking to build is an Indian A Team which is the space between the seniors and juniors. That’s where a lot of the talent sits and that’s where I was right now,” he added, referring to his morning session with the junior players that included Boby Singh Dhami, Varun Kumar and goalkeeper Suraj Karkera.

Karkera is one of eight players who were not a part of the Paris Olympics squad have been picked for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy which gets underway on September 8 in China. India are favourites to defend the title they won in Chennai last year.

Future stars in sight

With Fulton’s next focus set on qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands, the South African is geared towards building a squad that has a healthy mix of both youth and experience.

“You need experience to play in certain positions, but it’s not a prerequisite,” explained Fulton.

“Look at Sree [recently retired PR Sreejesh], goalkeepers develop later and it’s the same with certain defenders. You just need speed, fitness and sill because that’s the modern game at the moment.”

The formula around which Fulton aims to shape the squad post Paris 2024 is what worked successfully for the Indian team in the French capital en route their bronze medal.

Led by experienced defender Harmanpreet Singh and Sreejesh manning the goal, the forward line comprised of young talent in Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh. Although both Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Mandeep Singh were not as prolific in goal, their level-headedness in keeping the pressing tight and structured allowed for the attack to surge forward.

Asked about how he dealt with possible complacency seeping into the squad now that at least half of the team are two-time Olympic medallists, and Fulton explained that any player with that kind of attitude will be found out quickly. The coach was not letting the standard drop.

At the training session, Fulton glanced around the group all desperately trying to catch their breath and said: “If you don’t move in this game, you’re not tired. If you move in this game, you should be dead.”

Also read: India promise foundation of new era with bronze in Paris

Post Paris musings

During any match, Fulton generally stands on the sidelines, armed with a pen and clipboard in his hand and a stoic expression on his face.

However, on August 4, as Rajkumar Pal slotted home his penalty stroke in the quarter-final shoot-out against Great Britain, it was not just the players jumping around in celebration. Fulton himself threw his clipboard away and exhibited previously unseen levels of emotion, even gesturing to the opposition dugout before rushing on to the field to congratulate his players.

“I think [I celebrated so much] because that was the biggest moment of the tournament,” recalled Fulton.

“If we didn’t win that game, this conversation would have been totally different.”

The win was celebrated a tad more because of Amit Rohidas’ red card that saw the Indian team play with ten players for a majority of the quarter-final.

“I don’t think it’s been done, to get a red card with 43 minutes to go and then end up winning,” Fulton added. “But I knew that if we got a goal, we would put pressure on GB [Great Britain] to come forward and play. And that’s where we had succeeded in the previous matches.”

With that level of reaction from the dugout, was that Fulton’s best win of his coaching career so far?

“Don’t know about sweet, but everyone showed their value and character and basically their love for each other, to be honest,” said Fulton on the impact of the quarter-final win against Great Britain.

“Sreejesh stood quite tall and made three-four big saves which pushed everybody to dig deep and go again. Once we won, I was so pumped because I knew we’d done something special and we just needed to let it happen now.”

Planning ahead

With Sreejesh hanging up his boots, the 27-year-old Krishan Pathak is expected to step into the boots of India’s first-choice goalkeeper.

The strategy of making both goalkeepers play in alternate quarters will continue. This was a strategy that allowed Pathak considerable game time to help him improve his range of skills.

Pathak had travelled to Paris as a reserve, given that the rule of only 16-players per squad would allow only one goalkeeper to be in the team.

“[Pathak] has been in good form and Suraj [Karkera] will be there to back him up,” Fulton said. “For the next camp, we will also bring in Pawan and there are a few good keepers in the Under-21 side also. So we have five good keepers in the making and we’ll give them the opportunity, but we’re sticking with Pathak as the lead now.”

In the Champions Trophy squad, Gurjot Singh is likely to make his debut with junior team players Uttam Singh and Araijeet Singh Hundal expected to get more game time. The latter has made a solid mark in his Pro League outings so far and along with Gurjot Singh, promises to be an exciting prospect for the new cycle.

Fulton acknowledged that a lot of the goals scored by the Indian team continue to come from penalty corners, courtesy Harmanpreet Singh.

“When you have a guy like Harmanpreet who can score those many goals just from penalty corners, who wouldn’t want him in your team,” Fulton said.

But the new-look forwards, Fulton added, will be pushed to explore their horizons and search for goals not just for the sake of winning penalty corners.

With the influx of a new crop of juniors making the transition to the senior set-up, the Indian camp is gearing up for the new Olympic cycle.