India aim to shake off inconsistency under Sjoerd Marijne ahead of Australia clash

Sundeep Misra


File image of the India men's hockey team. Reuters

Even before taking the field for their first match against reigning champions Australia, Indian captain Manpreet Singh was flustered. It didn’t take much. An innocuous question from a local reporter tied Manpreet into knots where he was asked about the ‘injector’ (player who pushes the ball for the penalty corner) and why does the ‘injector’ push the ball slowly which results in slowing the pace down and thus the penalty corner is rendered virtually useless. Manpreet took a few seconds to understand and asked the reporter to repeat the question.