Tokyo Olympics 2020: India banking on PR Sreejesh’s ‘contagious confidence’ in games and shootouts

Graham Reid fumbles around for the right word. He’s trying to explain what Indian team goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, the boisterous presence in goal for India for many years now, brings to the table.

“Contagious! That’s the word. Sreejesh brings a contagious confidence to the team,” Reid, who is the Indian’s men’s hockey team coach, finally manages to say.

“It’s nice to have him in the team. I’ve crossed Sreejesh’s personality before I came to India as the national team coach. He does bring to the team a uniqueness, that sometimes is hard to explain. He certainly lifts the group up if things aren’t going particularly well,” said Reid.

Indian skipper Manpreet Singh has been one of those who has benefitted from Sreejesh’s reassuring presence on the pitch. Manpreet said that there had been multiple occasions when he was having a poor game and Sreejesh had boosted his confidence.

“It’ll take me a long time to list every incident when he had helped me. He’s the most experienced player in the team. He keeps motivating me…he gives me, and also the team, confidence. In fact, we all have the confidence that we have Sreejesh in goal,” said Manpreet.

In a team with as many as 10 players going to their first Olympic Games, Sreejesh’s experience of having played in two Olympics will also prove handy.

Shootout specialist

Besides his years of experience and his ability to boost the morale of the team, Sreejesh has proven himself time and again in shootouts.

In the Indian team’s second match in the FIH Pro League—played against World No 3 Netherlands in January 2020 at the Kalinga Stadium—Sreejesh’s street-smart keeping thwarted Jeroen Hertzberger, Glenn Schuurman and Thierry Brinkman in the shootout after a 3-3 draw to hand India a bonus point.

A month later, in another encounter of the Pro League, India and Australia were locked in a stalemate which necessitated a shootout. The shootout saw its share of drama, after Sreejesh was twice pulled up for fouling the attacker—Daniel Beale first and Tim Brand on the second attempt. Both occasions saw Australia being awarded a stroke. Sreejesh guessed right on each occasion, and got lucky to see one of them—the stroke by Daniel Beale fly wide. The Indian keeper then saved another effort by Nathan Ephraums and hassled Jake Harvie enough that the Aussie could not get his shot off the mandatory eight seconds. The shootout win gave India a bonus point.

“In things like shootouts, he’s one of the best in the world at the moment,” said Reid, who also added, “Shootouts are things that we are constantly working on. There aren’t too many training sessions where we don’t finish with a shootout. One of the problems with training by yourself for shootouts is that players get used to each other, ‘keepers know what the attacking player is going to do and vice versa. What we intend to do in the next three weeks is to get the junior players involved. This is so that we get some different perspectives.”

Given their strength in shootouts, would he consider the unorthodox, yet risky, strategy of making his team play for a stalemate at Tokyo, so that a win could be nicked via shootouts?

“It would take a brave coach to play for a shootout. It is something that’s part of the modern game. It’s good that we got to practice them in the FIH Pro League. It’s nice that we have people who are good at taking them, and two good keepers who can save them.”

Importance of Sreejsh  

While other tournaments allow teams to bring 18-member playing squads, at the Olympics that number falls to 16. This has necessitated some tough decisions from Reid, such as leaving out Akashdeep Singh and keeper Krishan Pathak, who has been an able understudy to Sreejesh in goal.

Like many other teams, India have alternated in each quarter between Sreejesh and Pathak at FIH Pro League games and other tour matches. While Pathak is a certainty to be named in the three-person reserve squad—which will mean he can fly to Tokyo with the rest of the team—he will not be able to pad up mid-game should Sreejesh pick up an injury while playing. This puts even more responsibility on the shoulders of Sreejesh.

Reid said that they had been training a few players to stand in goal should such a scenario occur.

“We’re training a couple of the guys since last week to pad up in case something happens to Sreejesh mid-game,” said Reid, who refused to divulge who these players were. “We have to have those what-if scenarios in place, which we do. But it would need a very serious injury for someone like Sreejesh to not finish out a game in the goal.”