CHENNAI: By design, Harmanpreet Singh is the public face of the men's hockey side. That's not just because he's the skipper. It's also because he's the first when it comes to drag-flicking. Dial H for Harman whenever India gets a penalty corner. Sometimes, like against New Zealand at the World Cup, it doesn't work out. At the Kalinga Stadium in January, Singh got opportunities to win it in normal time but couldn't convert.
In the post-match press conference, the defender sounded downcast, trying to explain why his conversion rates had taken a downturn. "Of course, everyone is talking about penalty corner conversion," he had said then. "I am trying but it is not coming off. Obviously our PC conversion (was off)..." It was a reminder that unlike some of the other elite teams, India relied on their No. 1 drag-flicker to deliver the goods.
Cut to seven months later and Chennai is proving to be a balm of sorts for Harmanpreet. He's not just the tournament's leading goal-scorer (seven, three more than Malaysia's Firhan Ashari) at this stage but has also scored all of his goals from drag flicks.
In the recent past, most of the press conferences involving Harmanpreet have revolved around asking him to explain lesser-than-ideal conversion rates. It was a measure of how good his tournament has been that after the match against Pakistan, he was asked about the positive conversion rate. "No, that is my responsibility," he said when asked if it felt nice to not answer questions about not scoring enough from penalty corners. "You people have the right to ask those questions. I will keep trying my best."
He was equally measured when directly asked about his own role in the commanding 4-0 win over the Green Shirts. "Our forwards created so many chances," he said. "They have responsibilities to take shots, score goals, and win PCs. Even after that, there's the push, the stop, only after that do I come into play as a flicker."
The ironic thing in all of this is that Harmanpreet's primary role on this side is to marshall the troops at the back. Playing as the right back in this set-up, his other -- day -- job is to stop the oxygen at the source whenever an opposition attack develops before dribbling on the outside or spraying passes in the field (like his pass to S Karthi's opening goal against Malaysia in a 5-0 rout). It's in this role that the 27-year-old truly excels.
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India had multiple coaches since 2018 and they have all come in with their own template of how to play hockey. While they have chopped and changed, the defender remains one of the first names on the team sheet; that's because of the way he reads the game. Sure, it helps to be a good drag-flicker but the awareness he brings to his day job is why all of Harendra Singh, Sjoerd Marijne, Graham Reid and, now, Craig Fulton, have put him there.
He's also the ideal team man. He has seemingly adopted Karthi like his son (the Tamil Nadu forward has spoken about his admiration for the skipper multiple times). It reflects in the way he shares his responsibilities from dead-ball situations. He may be the lead drag-flicker but if the coaching staff feel there's somebody else who should have a crack, Harman steps aside. "It's planned," Fulton said. "That happens behind the scenes. We do a lot of study on it. Not going to tell you everything. There's a lot of work that goes into it," the South African said when speaking about how they decide which short-corner will be taken by whom.
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For drag-flickers, their work outside drag-flicks is seldom analysed. That's just the nature of the work. While India will need Harmanpreet the drag-flicking exponent to retain his magic over the next two months till the Asiad, his work at the back is equally important.
His watch will continue against Japan in the semifinal on Friday.
