“We know how strong we are” – Graham Reid expresses satisfaction with India’s unbeaten European tour

The Indian men’s hockey team returned to competitive international action and ended the tour of Europe unbeaten, drawing two and winning two. What was even more promising was that their four-match unbeaten run consisted of matches against two of the top teams in the world – fourth ranked Germany and seventh ranked Great Britain.

The Germans were swept aside 6-1 in the first match while the return fixture ended in a 1-1 draw. On the other hand, Great Britain gave a tougher fight by drawing the first match 1-1 and then narrowly losing the final fixture 3-2.

Graham Reid reacts to India’s successful tour

Indian head coach Graham Reid spoke about the tour and first reflected on the victory over Germany. He said, “We warmed them up. I think one of the takeaways from this tour is how important international competition is in your improvement. Each game brings new challenges and we have to come across different things from different teams. That’s what makes you better,” in an interview with The Times of India.

“Our guys are up there with the world’s leading teams…I am quite happy, except for the 10 [penalty] corners we allowed in the first game…Defensively we have been doing a fair bit of work, and that’s paying off, which is good,” Reid further said. “We have been stuck inside for 12 months. If there was a major benefit [of the tour], it was getting refreshed,” he signed off.

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