Drag flicker Rupinder calls for focus on stronger defence, more goals

Indian drag flicker Rupinder Pal Singh on Tuesday said that the national side needs to work on its defence in order to improve their performance against the higher ranked teams.

"We need to work on our defence and more importantly, we need to score goals. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done," Singh said after arrival at the New Delhi airport.

"I am not at all happy with my performance. The work that I was supposed to do at the penalty corner, I was not able to give my 100 percent... I need to improve a lot and will work on it in the upcoming matches," he added.

Meanwhile, Indian team hockey coach Roelant Oltmans said, "It is clear that we did not achieve what we expected in Belgium, especially in the matches against the top teams in the world like Australia, Great Britain and Belgium. If you are smashed by a four goal difference, it is not what you expect from the Indian team at the moment. We have been close with them and have beaten them in the past years, so we were looking for it."

The Indian team finished fourth in the Hockey World League (HWL) Semifinals but some of the performances were not up to the mark, suffering losses of 6-2 against Australia, 4-0 against Belgium and 5-1 against Great Britain.