Hockey World Cup 2018: India can beat anyone if they don’t play scared, says Glenn Turner

Glenn Turner is not just another former Australian hockey striker. He’s a two-time World Cup winning champion, having reached atop the podium with the Kookaburras in 2010 as well as 2014.

It’s with that been-done-there-that experience that the 34-year-old still labels the Aussies as the favourites to lay their hands on that gold medal for the third straight time.

“From what I’ve seen from Australia, they’re still the favourites, simply because they’ve won everything after the Rio Olympics,” Turner, who is in India for a special week-long camp with the forwards of the Indian women’s hockey team, said here on Monday.

“When you win everything and you come to the finals, you’ve got a different feeling. You have the confidence of knowing how to win. That’s a big thing. Belgium haven’t won many of the big tournaments, Holland haven’t won for a long time. And that’s why (Olympic champions) Argentina still have a big chance in the tournament,” he added.

The New South Wales-born Turner is fairly impressed with what he has seen from the Indian team in the three league matches so far, and felt that Harendra Singh’s boys can beat anybody on their day as long as they have the belief of doing so.

“I think they’ll play Holland in the quarterfinals. I don’t think India are scared of Holland now, which was the case in the past. If they don’t play scared, then they can beat anyone in the world, including Australia. 

“But you have to believe it. If you go into the game thinking Australia are better, even just a little bit, then you’re already on the back foot,” said Turner, who was also part of the Australian team that clinched bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.