With four frontline forwards ruled out of the upcoming crucial Asia Cup, the Indian team may have been in a spot of bother. But, the interim coach Roelant Oltmans feels that the young strikers have it in them to bring the required results.
Star striker SV Sunil along with Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Danish Mujtaba and Akashdeep Singh have been ruled out due to various injuries for the tournament where India must win in order to qualify for the World Cup in 2014.
Now, the team is dependent on some of the inexperienced players like 18-year old Mandeep Singh, Nithin Thimmiah and Prabhdeep Singh for the tournament to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia from August 24th to September 2nd.
“We should not worry about the players who are not a part of the team. Rather, I am looking for players who are going to play in place of them. The four players were experienced but now we have young strikers.
“We have the guys who can score. Mandeep after being declared the Player of the tournament in the Hockey India league, is progressing well. Prabhdeep is a goal scorer and Nithin was the highest goal-scorer in the national championships. So, they have potential. They are young but that does not mean that they are not good,” Oltmans said during a media interaction at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here on Thursday after his team played a practice game against Punjab National Bank team.
The legendary coach denied that there is a lot of pressure on the team considering that this is the only route to qualify for the WC. “There is no pressure from outside. Pressure on players is from the challenge to play the game in the best possible manner. They need to worry about that. Right now, we are planning on structure and style of play. Our focus is on the first game against Oman and I am preparing my team for that,” he added.The Dutchman said that goalkeeping coach Dave Staniforth will be joining the squad on Friday.