India skipper Virat Kohli on Tuesday said the team will cope up with injuries to Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal as the squad has enough depth heading into the Test series against England.

India and England will be locking horns in five Tests, with the first starting on Wednesday. This series marks the start of the second World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. Shubman Gill is ruled out of the series due to an injury and on Monday, Mayank Agarwal was ruled out of the first Test due to a concussion. “We will announce the XI tomorrow before we go for the toss, so you can know who is opening with Rohit. We are absolutely fine and happy with where we are placed,” said Kohli while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference.

Talking about how India can overcome those bad 2-2.5 hours which have ended up costing them the games, Kohli said: “Of course, as a team, we look to improve the things we have not done well. And that is one aspect of the game we need to get better at, and that is understanding how to control the damage when things are not going well. That’s what Test cricket is all about, you cannot have all sessions go your way. We know exactly what we need to do and it all boils down to execution.”

When asked whether Shardul Thakur can be groomed as a proper all-rounder in the longest format, Kohli said: “He already is a multi-dimensional cricketer and it is all about him getting more and more confidence. Someone like him brings balance to the side, Hardik Pandya has done for us in the past, right now he is getting on track to bowling regularly. These kinds of cricketers help the team in a massive way. Shardul is a huge prospect for us, he will be important to us not just in this series, but going ahead as well.”

India is in the UK since June as they played against New Zealand in the WTC finals from June 18-22. The Indian skipper believes that his side would be prepared well for the upcoming series against England having spent time in the country for almost two months.

India had last won a Test series in England in 2007 under the leadership of Rahul Dravid and after that, the Men in Blue have struggled to get past the Three Lions on their own backyard.

Javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh will be in action on day twelve while boxer Lovlina Borgohain will compete in the semifinals in the Olympics on Wednesday.

Lovlina (69kg) has assured India a bronze after storming into the semifinals. Meanwhile, Neeraj said he is happy that he is finally getting to represent the country at the Olympics.

“I am looking forward to what will be my first experience at the Olympics. I have had a fair share of highs and lows over the past few years, and I’m happy that I am finally going to be able to represent my nation at the biggest sporting stage of them all,” said Neeraj in an official release in July.

“I feel the junior athletes having access to the institute are extremely lucky and thank brands like Bridgestone for supporting IIS in this effort,” he added.

The Indian women’s hockey team put up a fantastic display of skill and tenacity during their 1-0 victory over Australia in the quarterfinal match of the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.

High on confidence and self-belief after the momentous victory, the Indian women’s hockey team has now firmly set its sights on the all-important semifinal encounter against Argentina on Wednesday.

Golfers Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar will compete in women’s round 1 and Anshu Malik, Ravi Dahiya, and Deepak Punia will headline wrestling action for India.

If the trio qualifies for the next round, Anshu Malik, Ravi Dahiya, and Deepak Punia would play the semifinal matches on the same day.

In the afternoon, the Indian women’s Hockey team; led by Rani, will count on their recent experience of playing against the Argentinians during their extensive tour of Argentina in January 2021.

Much like the Indian team, Argentina has also gone from strength to strength in the competition, securing the semifinal berth after a convincing 3-0 victory against Germany in the quarterfinal on Monday.

Meanwhile, India’s hopes to play in an Olympic Final was dashed on day eleven of the ongoing Tokyo Games as a formidable Belgium squad came back from a 1-2 deficit to beat the Manpreet Singh-led side 5-2 on Tuesday.

It was a hat-trick by Alexander Hendrickx (19’, 49’, 53’), and goals by Loick Luyaert (2’) and John-John Dohmen (60’) that helped Belgium book a place in the final. For India, Harmanpreet Singh (7’) and Mandeep Singh (9’) scored the two goals. India’s hunt for a medal, however, will continue when they play the Bronze medal play-off match on Thursday.

The day started with Javelin thrower Annu Rani failing to qualify for the women’s final after an underwhelming show.

In her first attempt, Rani registered a throw of 50.35m. After the first attempt, Rani was placed at the ninth spot.

In the second attempt, the 28-year-old registered a throw of 53.19m and by the time everyone was done with their second attempt, Rani slipped to the 14th spot.

Annu registered a throw of 54.04m in her third and final throw and she was placed at the 14th spot when the Qualification Group A ended.

Grappler Sonam Malik also bowed out of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics after losing to Mongolia’s Bolortuya Khurelkhuu in the women’s freestyle 62kg event.

In the afternoon, shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor finished 13th at the end of his three attempts in the qualifications of the men’s Shot Put (Group A) of the Tokyo Olympics.

Tajinder started with a throw of 19.99m but had two disqualifications in the next two attempts to see his hopes of qualifying for the finals dashed as India ended the day without a win on Tuesday.

It is unfortunate that after winning the gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the tradition of having a defensive coach in Indian hockey started. Due to this our hockey could not rise up as far as performance is concerned. And hence, as a result, our forward line kept getting weaker. It is arguably true that defense matters a lot, but this approach is not good.

If you look at the forwards of Indian team, then you will find that all the hype that was created about them could not stand the test. It was even said about Mandeep that it is very difficult to stop this player. I have seen him score goals only in the semi-finals. If it was really difficult to stop him, his stick should have scored many goals. Lalit Upadhyay is also completely disappointing. The rest of the forward players also did not have that game that we would have expected from them that would allow them to clinch a gold medal. Nevertheless, the overall performance of the team is commendable in itself.

At this point in time, Indian hockey needs to work within 23 yards, and the 23 yards of the opposition. Earning as many penalty corners as possible when the opponent forward line enters 23 yards in your area is important, as today’s hockey has largely been limited to penalty corners and 23 yards of play on either side. At the same time, the defense should try not to let the opposition forward succeed in its 23 yards. The secret of Belgium’s success in international hockey is scoring on penalty corners. Alexandre Hendriks made a big contribution to Belgium by making his team the champions by scoring seven goals in the World Cup. He also scored three goals against India and has scored 14 goals in this tournament so far. Harmanpreet also scored five goals from the penalty corners. The Australian hockey team, however, is an exception, as they are very good at field goals.

The Indian team has given up in the fourth quarter against Belgium. Belgium’s excessive possession of the ball and their aggression ruined it. Their thinking proved decisive. However, our team did a great game against Argentina. I still stand by my point that we should have relied on experienced players in the forward line. Ramandeep, SV Sunil and Akashdeep had experience.

I also believe that after an age the player starts playing hockey with their mind which proves to be very useful for the team. Our defensive coach should have been trained to score as many goals as possible. As a result of his defensive approach, we became very defensive in the last quarter against Britain also. It was our luck that we won, and this weakness of ours was hidden.

The author is a former Olympian and has played in four World Cups. Views expressed are personal.

India discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur put up a spirited display on her debut Olympic campaign, but couldn’t win a medal as she finished at the sixth spot in the final with a best throw of 63.70m at the Tokyo Games on Monday.

Kamalpreet had made it into the top eight with the throw of 63.70m. This was her third attempt, but the athlete failed to make the top three as two of her remaining three attempts were flagged (disqualified). Kamalpreet Kaur started off with a throw of 61.62m and was in sixth place before dropping to seventh.

Kamalpreet’s second attempt was a foul which saw her moving down after a good start. The event then came to a halt due to rain. American discus thrower Valarie Allman started off after the resumption of the event but ended up with a foul throw.

In her 3rd attempt, Kamalpreet registered a throw of 63.70m which kept her in the contest and helped her move again to the sixth spot. In her fourth attempt, she again recorded a foul throw. Kamalpreet fired a throw of 61.37m in the fifth attempt before again registering a foul throw with her last attempt.

She might have missed out on a medal, but she clearly showed she belongs to the big stage and if she keeps progressing like she has, Kamalpreet could be a sureshot contender for a medal in the next Games.

Indian equestrian Fouaad Mirza and his horse Seigneur Medicott finished 23rd in the individual eventing jumping and missed out on a medal in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics on Monday.

Mirza came 23rd out of 25 with a final score of 59.60. “The #Equestrian Individual Eventing Jumping final comes to an end @FouaadMirza and #SeigneurMedicott finish 23rd. No medal here, but an inspirational performance from the duo this #Olympics. Great future ahead for them!” SAIMedia tweeted. Meanwhile, Germany’s Julia Krajewski became the first individual female athlete to win Olympic gold in individual eventing with a near-flawless final jump with her Amande de B’Neville.

While individual eventing became a mixed event in Tokyo 1964, no woman had ever won gold in this event – until now, reported Olympics.com After competing in the dressage and cross country over the past three days, it all came down to the jumping section of the eventing competition.

Great Britain’s Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser won silver while Australia’s Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos had a flawless jump in the final to clinch bronze in his eighth Olympic Games.

The Indian men’s hockey team coach Graham Reid has sent out a strong message to his players about keeping their emotions in check ahead of their historic semi-final encounter against World Champions Belgium on Tuesday.

While the Australian expressed that he was happy with the 3-1 victory against Great Britain in the quarter-final on Sunday and lauded their fighting spirit, he highlighted that the two green cards and one yellow card in the game is something they ought to avoid against a world-class team like Belgium. “I am very proud of the players. We fought hard and sometimes that is what you have to do in final situations of a crunch game like the quarter-final. You have to fight, bite and scratch. We were very lucky yesterday because they (Great Britain) created more opportunities than us but our PC defence and Sreejesh especially were magnificent last night. They saved us,” Reid said in an official Hockey India release.

“But looking forward, the things we can learn from last night is that there is a difference between passion and emotion. Sometimes, we let our emotions take over. We need to keep 11 players on the pitch. The problem is that we played a lot of our game against Great Britain with 10 men on the pitch. We can’t do that against Belgium and think that we can be victorious. That will be the big message to the team today when we have a meeting,” asserted Reid.

While the team won the crunch quarter-final game with three field goals from Dilpreet Singh (7’), Gurjant Singh (16’) and Hardik Singh (57’), Reid believes there is still some work to be done in ensuring a sustained attack.

“It was great to score field goals against Great Britain. We didn’t get any corners, so of course we also need to be working on a sustained attacking pressure which I always talk about with the players. As I said, against a team like Belgium, it will be very important to keep all 11 players on the pitch the entire duration,” added Reid.

On the cusp of creating history, India will be gunning for a victory on Tuesday and will be riding on their recent experiences against Belgium.

India has tasted success against them in the FIH Hockey Pro League in 2020 where they beat the World Champions 2-1 in their second game and had lost 2-3 in their first of the two double-headers in Bhubaneswar.

“As far as Belgium is concerned, obviously they and Australia have been sharing the World No.1 spot for the last 18-24 months. So, in that sense, Belgium will be a very difficult opponent. But we have played them a fair bit in the past and have the experience of doing well against them too. So, we need to focus on the things that we can do against them and make sure that we are much more disciplined in defence and our structure is much better,” stated Manpreet.