Bengaluru, June 28: Despite India trouncing Pakistan 7-1 in the recently concluded Hockey World League (HWL) semifinals, the hockey fraternity seems a bit upset following the team's sixth place finish.

Former skipper Baskaran has criticised the tactics of chief coach Roelant Oltmans. Zafar Iqbal has observed the lack of winning spree among the players. Even the High-Performance director David John had raised questions over Indian defenders' poor show.

But one of the coaches Arjun Halappa believes there is also a gain from this tournament. That is the inspiring performance by the junior players who have been representing senior Indian team for the first time.

Halappa said: “Looking at the sixth finish in the championship we should not criticise. I believe we should also look at the players like Mandeep Singh, Vikash Dahiya, and Manpreet Singh who has drawn attention to their impressive show in the tournament.“

He added, “We are going through a transition period. I believe looking forward to the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Word Cup we must think of rebuilding the team so that these junior players can shine and help the country to win laurels.

"Naturally, in this process, there will be mistakes and failures sometimes. We should not highlight that portion only.

The former Indian skipper also believes that Vikash Dahiya had an impressive show in the Hockey World League semifinals in absence of injured skipper Sreejesh.

The former player said: “Sreejesh is the best goalkeeper in the world now. You have to accept his injury.

"But Dahiya had such a wonderful show in London that I feel he will not let us release that Sreejesh will be out of the pitch for next five months."

OneIndia News