Craig Fulton is sitting in the long balcony of the building where his office is situated in Bengaluru's Sports Authority of the India campus. He is there talking to reporters one-on-one a few hours after his World Cup bound national team played a practice match. He's happy with what he saw during the match, as compared to practice game they'd played before that, which wasn't as 'productive'.
The question is about pressure. The last two FIH Pro League seasons, where India faced the best of the world, hadn't been impressive, with the side finishing second last in both years. Fulton's methods were criticised, even by PR Sreejesh, a former player who won an Olympic bronze under him. And on the eve of their departure for the World Cup, there was a lot of noise about changing the colour of their jersey.
Fulton is staring into the empty practice pitch and beyond as he tries to find the right words to answer the question about him feeling the pressure. He neither denies nor addresses it directly but the bottom line of his answer is that he and his team have a job to do.
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The upcoming job is the World Cup followed by the Asian Games. India are the clear favourites for the gold medal at the Asian Games and if they can do it, they would book their place at the Los Angeles Olympics 2028. However, the World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium is a whole new level. India are not the favourites there. They are ranked eighth in the world, and it would take some performances to upset the likes of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, Argentina and Australia.
"To be consistent against the top six teams in Europe is very difficult," Fulton tells ESPN. "We're ranked eighth in the world at the moment, or seventh in the world. I think the bottom line is that, for every tournament we play in, the ideal goal is to win every tournament. Then there's the realistic goal based on where you're ranked. Our ranking doesn't match up to our last five performances, so that's good for us."
The performances Fulton refers to came against the Netherlands, Germany, England and Pakistan in their European leg of the Pro League. They managed to beat the Dutch and Germany once each in Rotterdam, while playing out two draws against England in London. India showed a lot of improvement after failing to win even one game from their previous eight in the league, including losing all four games to Argentina and Belgium at home in Rourkela, where they conceded 19 goals. A week later in the Hobart leg, India played two draws against Australia, while drawing once and losing once against Spain.
These Pro League matches came right after the completion of the Hockey India League, and Fulton makes a case for the players who had to come in after little to no rest and no time for a camp.
"I'm a lot more experienced now in understanding the phases of this team. Every time we put all our effort into the Hockey India League, with all the Indian players involved, it takes a lot out of them. To then come and play eight games after that is very, very difficult," Fulton says.
It does make sense. However, in the 2024-25 season of Pro League, India lost seven out of eight games they played in Europe. Those games didn't come right after the Hockey India League, although they had to play eight matches in two weeks.
The losing streaks in both the Pro League seasons had a pattern and it had to do with the team's own philosophy. Fulton's success with India came on the back of a strong defence. He has been unapologetic about how he wants his team to play and it involves all 11 players behind the ball when the opponent has it, and taking their chances from quick counterattacks and set pieces. This was the bedrock which led to the Paris Olympics bronze medal. Over the last two years though, India's robustness in defence took a hit. The players struggled to keep their concentration which led to mistimed traps and tackles which in turn led to penalty corner chances and ultimately resulted in goals.
Out of the 39 goals they conceded in the last Pro League season, 21 came from penalty corners. In fact, they conceded 66 penalty corners in the first eight games where they didn't secure an outright win. While there was an improvement in the next eight games, they still conceded 51 penalty corners. Even when it came to scoring from penalty corners, in the 16 games, India's efficiency was the third-worst at 20.63%, just above Spain's 20.55 and Australia's 19.59. Belgium (36.67%), Germany (26.23), Netherlands (25.29%) and Argentina (23.23%) were much better. India earned only 63 penalty corners in 16 games while Belgium (75), Netherlands (87), Argentina (99), England (82) and Australia (97) were far ahead in those numbers.
Fulton knows his team has to address the set-piece issue. "We still have to focus on shootouts and make sure that we are really, really ready for those. That was a big focus of this camp. Set-pieces, penalty-corner defence and penalty-corner attack are areas we've been focusing a lot on in this block," he says.
In the past, the team had Sreejesh who was outstanding with his set-piece defending. After his retirement, Krishan Pathak was supposed to take up the mantle, however his form nosedived after the Paris Olympics. He struggled in last year's Pro League and Asia Cup, after which he lost his place in the team. Current goalkeepers Suraj Karkera and Mohith HS are short on big tournament experience and will be playing their first ever World Cup. In terms of consistency, both keepers need to step up.
While have India maintained their status as Asia's best in the last two years, winning both the Asian Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup, positive results have been hard to come by when they have faced the best European teams.
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Everyone knows hockey is a team game, but they also know that some players are more important than others. In this team, that player is Harmanpreet Singh. India's post-Paris struggles mirror that of their captain and penalty corner specialist, whose multiple injuries have hampered him since then. In the 2024-25 European leg of Pro League, he had to miss multiple games due to a finger injury, while India lost seven games at a stretch. Before that in 2024, he had issues with hamstring and back injuries.
He struggled in the Rourkela leg of the Pro League last season, was rested for the Hobart leg and ended up scoring just one goal in the European leg this year. It's not just about his dragflicking, where his skills rank among the world's best. Under Fulton, Harmanpreet's developed into a playmaker with long passes and aerial balls proven very effective in breaking down stubborn defences. It's pertinent to remember that Harmanpreet's defensive work rate and his penalty corner goals were hugely responsible in India winning the bronze at the Paris Olympics.
While Jugraj Singh has had his share of dragflick goals, consistency has been missing. Fulton also gave chances to Amandeep Lakra, one of the breakout players from the HIL, but has decided against taking him for the Word Cup.
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It's clear that Fulton and the team suffered because the parts which worked before and during the Paris Olympics stopped working. Sreejesh's retirement and Pathak's form became an issue in the goalkeeping department. Harmanpreet's multiple injuries took a toll. And mistakes at the back became more frequent.
After back-to-back Olympics bronze medals, there was expectation that India would take a serious shot at the World Cup. They have missed out twice at home, losing the quarterfinals in 2018 and in the crossover stage in 2022, which led to Fulton's predecessor Graham Reid's departure. It has been more than 50 years since they won the trophy in 1975. Since then, they haven't even made it to the semifinals.
The last two years have dampened expectations, but Fulton is ready to embrace the underdog tag. It's also important to remember that under him, India tend to start slowly but peak at the right time. It happened at the Paris Olympics and at the Asia Cup in Rajgir. There are also players who can play a big role in the upcoming days. Abhishek, Shilanand Lakra and Rajinder Singh have shown they can create and, more importantly, score field goals.
"We come in with probably a five-to-six percent chance of winning this tournament," says Fulton. "The top three seeds, especially the teams that are playing at home, Belgium and Holland, have to deliver because it's their World Cup. Look what happened to India when they had to deliver. It's tough. It's really tough."
Before winding up the conversation, Fulton insists that they have learned from their recent tough results. That they have prepared their best to bridge the gap. And that they will go for it. "It's a World Cup. You don't play light. You don't play small because it's a World Cup. You have to go for it. The bigger the dream, the bigger the team."