Though India are out of the title race for the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, they have a huge game against Australia on Saturday.
Vasudevan Bhaskaran, former Indian coach feels that the Indian team should go in with a high morale when they face the in-form Aussies.
India have won just one match in the competition against Canada, and have lost against New Zealand and Malaysia and drawn with Korea. This is not what new coach Paul van Ass expected from the team after they left from India to participate in the prestigious hockey tournament in Malaysia.
"India needs to put up a challenge against Australia and forget about it (recent results in the competition), but it is very easy saying from outside," Baskaran told IBTimes India.
Van Ass' side have conceded a minimum of two goals per match in the competition, which is not a good sign, especially when they are scheduled to face an offensive team like Australia, who have already scored an impressive 18 goals and conceded only 5 goals.
Indian defenders need to have a strong defensive game, if they are to stop Aussie players such as Dylan Wotherspoon, Jamie Dwyer and Jeremy Hayward, who have all looked in great form.
Despite India languishing in the fourth position of the standings, they have been unlucky at times failing to find the back of the net.
"The focus should be on committing less error. India have been playing well, but are not converting their chances," added Bhaskaran.
Conceding late goals in the competition has been a major problem for India. They suffered defeat against Malaysia after conceding a late goal and the same happened earlier against New Zealand as well.
If India gets its act right during the last round robin game against Australia, they have the ammunitions to hand Australia their first defeat in the competition.
Australia are favourites to clinch the title, but their finals opponent has not been decided yet. The winner of tomorrow's game between Korea and New Zealand will face Australia in the title decider.
