India face depleted Australia today

“It is a long process and we need to be patient. The first task is to get the players in competitive trim, develop a team and only then, hopefully, we would get the desired results,” said new coach Joaquim Carvalho.

Carvalho felt that the players need to get their confidence back with regular international exposure. “This is the real significance for us in this (Azlan Shah Cup) tournament,” he pointed out.

However, Carvalho preferred to look ahead. He fancied India’s chances against Australia, the runners-up to Germany at the 2006 World Cup, when the two meet in the inaugural tie tomorrow. “It will be a tough game, but I will not rule out a good result for us,” he said.

India would be hoping that their relatively young and inexperienced midfield would be able to contain the swift Aussie forwards.

In this context, skipper Prabhodh Tirkey would have added responsibility of guiding the half-line that would be critical to India’s chances. The deep defence, minus Dilip Tirkey too will have its task cut out and a lot is expected from the William Xalxo and penalty corner specialist R Raghunath.

Prabhjot Singh is staging a comeback and being the most experienced of the forwards, the onus will be on him to carry the attacks. Meanwhile, Australia are without seven regular players, including the likes of Jamie Dwyer, Michael McCann, Travis Brooks and Dean Butler.

–Anand Philar