New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) For India to be a consistently winning force in international hockey, field goals have to increase, asserted several current and former players after the team's second successive bronze in the Olympic Games.
Say no more, responded the side in the Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir, China, remaining unbeaten for the entirety of the event to win the title for a record fifth time.
And in this incredible campaign, Harmanpreet Singh and his men pumped in 18 field goals out of a total 26 on-target strikes in the tournament.
It was a marked improvement from the Olympic campaign in Paris where India scored 15 goals in total out of which just three came from field efforts.
Among those who stressed on the need for more field goals was P R Sreejesh, the talismanic goalkeeper who called it quits after the Games.
India chief coach Craig Fulton fielded a relatively young side for the Asian Champions Trophy, resting experienced forwards like Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay.
The only two strikers from the Paris squad who retained their place in the were Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh. Fulton drafted in young blood like former junior team skipper Uttam Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal and Gurjot Singh.
And the new lot didn't disappoint.
In fact, the younger forwardline scored 11 field goals.
While Uttam found the net four times in the tournament -- three from field efforts and one from indirect penalty corner, Hundal (3), Sukhjeet (3) and Abhishek (2) also did their bit much to the delight of chief coach Fulton.
If that was not enough, the most heartening performance was from skipper and drag-flicker Harmanpreet (2) and defender Jugraj Singh (1), who also scored field goals.
Harmanpreet ended as the second highest scorer in the tournament behind China's Jihun Yang (9) with seven strikes, five of which came from penalty corners.
Jugraj also scored two goals -- one from a penalty corner and the other a rare field goal that handed India the title-clinching 1-0 win over hosts China on Tuesday.
To the delight of the Indian coaching staff, young mid-fielder Raj Kumar Pal shone brightly in the tournament, scoring three field goals while defender Jarmanpreet Singh also similarly found the net once.
India scored the maximum number of 26 goals, followed by arch-rivals Pakistan (18), Korea (17), Malaysia (17), Japan (15) and China (10) in the six-team competition.
It was a marked improvement and Fulton hope for the trend to continue in the upcoming tournaments.