The biggest strength of junior team is that they're a team: PR Sreejesh

As captain of senior team, you will be keeping a close eye on the Junior World Cup, isn't it?

It's a big tournament. It's the biggest event for the juniors. If you do really well in it, the confidence and self-belief of the boys will go high. They will take that confidence and psychological edge in whichever tournament they play in the future for the senior team. There will be a couple of players, or even more than that, who will come and join the senior camp soon, and this experience will help them perform that much better for the senior side. That's why the Junior World Cup is one of the major tournaments in world as well as Indian hockey.

You guys train together a lot of times in national camps in Bengaluru. How much promise do you see in these group of juniors that they can eventually play for the senior side as well?

There is a lot of talent in the junior set-up. However, when you compare it with the senior players, they need to really work harder, they need to gain more experience. So, I think they will take some time to fight with the seniors or replace the senior players in our team. But there's no doubt that there is a lot of talent there.

That's a bit like how your career panned out, isn't it? You shone in the junior team but took some time to displace the seniors in the national team. Why is it that only some players translate their success from juniors into seniors?

The pressure levels and intensity of matches in the junior and senior levels are completely different. If you're playing in the junior team for one or two years, after the second year you will start feeling that you're the toughest competitor for the opposition. You will get the belief that you can beat them again and again. You start getting into your comfort zone. But when it comes to the senior team, it is very tough for us to maintain that consistency and adjust with different situations.

For example, when I started my career for the country (in 2006), the Indian team was 13th in world ranking. The goal then for the players was to perform in a way that we can get back into a creditable position in the world rankings. We tried a lot every year. Now, we're World No. 6, which is a result of all the hard work over the last couple of years. So, you can't really predict the kind of result your hard work can fetch you.

But yes, a couple of the junior guys are really good. They are already in the senior team, and they further need to polish their skills. They need to perform consistently to find their feet in the senior team. If they do that, then in a year or two, we can predict that a couple of these juniors will be there in the senior team.

You've donned the hat of a mentor for the junior team. They've won a lot of tournaments in the build-up to the World Cup. What do you think is their biggest strength?

The biggest strength of this team is that they're a team. There's no star player. They don't depend on any particular player to score goals for them. If Harmanpreet (Singh) is not there, Varun (Kumar) steps up, and if Varun is not there, someone else will. So, there are players who can replace each other in the team. If they see someone is having a low phase or is having a bad day, the others are trying to push him and trying to cover his mistakes. That's really important in a game like hockey.

Also, I think the quality of the coaching staff has given them a lot of boost. A guy like Roelant (Oltmans) being with them apart from the senior team is such a positive thing for the young boys. It just helps them perform that extra bit better on the field.

What did you tell the boys before they left for Lucknow?

I had a meeting with them before they left. And, I'll be joining the team in Lucknow on Tuesday. I told them that it is more important to focus on things that you can control on the field. What happens in a big tournament like the World Cup is that the outside pressure can get too much for you, especially for the junior team. I know that because I've been there as well. So I told them: 'just trust your skills, believe in the system around you, play for each other, play for your country and show that passion to everyone on the field. Once you do that, you'll get the results you want'.

India have been labelled as favourites for the title. What is your assessment?

Yes, if you go by the results over the last one or one-and-a-half years, then definitely we're the favourites of the tournament. But that said, it's the biggest event for the junior team, so the pressure will be really different. One thing that can negate that pressure is playing at home, because there will be a lot of people cheering for the boys. So, it's all about how you perform and soak in the pressure on that particular day.