India's veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh has been India's mainstay custodian for more than 15 years. Sreejesh, who debuted in South Asian Games in 2006, is a three-time Olympian and a Bronze medal winner of the Tokyo Olympics 2021. As the 34-year-old walks into the twilight of his career, the Indian hockey team has been moulding a young custodian Krishan Pathak to guard the goal after Sreejesh calls it time.
After India's goalless draw with England in the Hockey World Cup 2023, India's goalkeeping coach Dennis van de Pol has opened up on how Pathak has matured and is ready to take the goalkeeping duties when the time comes. "I have worked a couple of times in camps with the Indian team. Back in December in Bengaluru, I worked with nine goalies out of which three are from the first team -- Sreejesh, Krishan Pathak and Suraj Karkera," Van de Pol told PTI. "The goalies from the 2019 batch of India juniors are now in the senior group. So there are definitely good plans for the future," he added.
Van de Pol also stated that it is good that Sreejesh and Pathak play in quarters, which gives the opportunity to the latter to get exposed to crunch matches. The other good part is that both the two goalies of the senior team -- Krishan and Sreejesh play in quarters. Krishan is much junior to Sree, so he is exposed quite a lot in big matches. So he is the guy for the future. By the time Sreejesh stops, Krishan will still be a young guy with a lot of experience," he added.
The coach also threw light on how the goalkeeping technique has been tweaked over the years. It's not only goalkeeping that has evolved over the years but hockey itself has evolved a lot. The game got a lot faster, most teams are able to do quick counters. People are getting so much strong and fitter in hockey and you need to be able to adapt to that," the 44-year-old said. "For goalkeepers, it has become much faster. You cannot be just a goalie and stay in your line and save the goal-bound balls. Nowadays, you need to be an all-round goalie. You need to be a good shot-stopper, you need to be good in PC anticipation. Last but not least, you need to organise your entire defence and it is a big skill.
The Indian hockey team is on the second spot in Pool D of the Hockey World Cup 2023. They won the first match against Spain by 2-0, while they held England to a goalless draw in the second match. India next play Wales in their final Pool match on January 19 and would need to win big to stand a chance of direct qualification in the quarterfinals. The top-placed team from each group qualifies for the last 8 automatically, while the second and third-placed teams will play a crossover to determine the next four teams.
Inputs from PTI.
