Sardar Singh, Indian hockey team captain, is impressed with the showings of the young trio of Harmanpreet Singh, Harjeet Singh and Surender in the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia.
Fielding an experimental team, which featured a lot of young and inexperienced faces, they scored 18 goals in the tournament, the second most by any side.
India finished a creditable second, losing to Australia in the Final. Despite the defeat, Sardar sees many positives and he was particularly impressed with the trio, who he believes have a bright future.
"This was a good experience for youngsters, who were playing in the senior team for the first time. In particular, Harmanpreet, Surender and Harjeet showed that they are capable of playing at the higher level and fit into the team perfectly," Sardar said on Monday after the team returned home.
Coach Roelant Oltmans added, "It was a good preparation for Rio. We have identified some of our weaknesses, which a tournament like this highlights, and can now work on them extensively to make sure we can have a strong showing at the Olympics."
This year's performance was Indian team's best since 2010, when they won the gold at the tournament.
India managed to beat Japan, Canada, Pakistan and Malaysia but lost the final match to Australia to end as tournament runners-up. India also lost to New Zealand during the competition.
However, the team lost to both the sides that will feature in the Olympics and won only against those that have not qualified for the quadrennial extravaganza.