Sardar Singh shows sparks, but heat to remain in fray multiplies

During the frantic final quarter in India's 5-1 win over Malaysia in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Sardar Singh ran with the ball from just outside India's D into the midfield area. Tackled by a Malaysian defender, Sardar fell, and yet somehow passed the ball to Ramandeep Singh while on his way down. Ramandeep then passed it on to Sumit Kumar, who applied the finishing touches to score India's third goal.

As soon as the ball went into the Malaysian box, almost every Indian player went up to Sardar to celebrate. They knew it was their captain who set up the goal, who was at the heart of that skillful piece of hockey.

Sadly for the former India captain, though, such moments were few and far between.

Labelled as the make-or-break tournament for the 31-year-old, Sardar showcased a few glimpses of his old self in his favourite midfield position, at times creating masterful passes to feed his forwards and at times making key interceptions to block the opposition's forwards.

However, they were more cases of sparks than a story.

The moment Sardar was picked to lead a bunch of youngsters in this tournament after being axed for a few before, it was clear he needed an extraordinary performance to remain in the scheme of things for bigger events later this year – the Asian Games and FIH World Cup.

Having failed to come up with that exceptional show consistently in the Azlan Shah, his dream of playing on till the 2020 Tokyo Games – or even the World Cup in November-December, for that matter – now looks increasingly bleak.

With the think-tank set to get the regular players who were rested back for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) next month, it'll be a huge surprise if Sardar gets a ticket for that event.

Speaking to DNA on Sunday, chief coach Sjoerd Marijne refused to analyse just Sardar's show in the Azlan Shah, but said that the senior members in the team including captain Sardar did well in some matches, and not quite in the others.

"I don't speak about individuals, and I won't speak about Sardar. It's about the whole team performance," Marijne said.

"He (Sardar) was not the only leader, there were more leaders in the group. Experienced players must lift the levels of the team. Some matches they did well, and some matches they could've done better.

"I will speak to players individually by myself. There were good things he (Sardar) did, and there were things he could improve upon," the Dutchman added.

With Marijne deciding to cut the size of the core group from 33 to 24 after the CWG with an eye on the two big events this year and the 2020 Games, Sardar will feel he has a monumental mountain to climb in front of him to get into that list.

And, the Azlan Shah show did little to make that climb a tad easier.

Disappointed at No. 5 finish: Marijne

India head coach Sjoerd Marijne said he was disappointed at India's fifth-place finish in the Azlan Shah but added that the objectives from this tournament were largely met. "This tournament, we wanted to improve ourselves. And one of the improvements was in defending. I feel we're becoming better with every passing day in that," Marijne said. "Yes, to come No. 5 is always disappointing as coach. But I'm happy in the improvements we made, happy that a few young players did well in their first international outing."

Team for CWG out on Tuesday

Hockey India will announce the Indian men's hockey squad for the Commonwealth Games slated next month on Tuesday. Sjoerd Marijne confirmed that the experimentation with different players and combination will now stop. "We'll take the best team to the CWG. We saw different teams for the previous four tournaments, and almost every player in the core group played two tournaments each. With that knowledge from the four tournaments, we'll pick the best team and the best combination.