HIL’s best Amandeep Lakra catches Fulton’s eye

Bhubaneswar: The Indian men’s hockey team barely has time to exhale in 2026. The FIH Pro League begins for Harmanpreet Singh & Co. on Feb 11 in Rourkela, the first of 16 matches in the league season, before the World Cup (Aug 14-30) and the Asian Games (Sept 19-Oct 4) later in the year.With the workload in mind, chief coach Craig Fulton is keen to widen his pool and the home leg against Belgium and Argentina is expected to double up as an audition window. One name high on his list is Odisha defender Amandeep Lakra, after a standout Hockey India League (HIL) campaign for Hyderabad Toofans that earned him the Player of the Tournament award.The Hyderabad Toofans player has impressed the chief coach. “Last year, he was the second dragflicker behind Gonzalo Peillat, but this year he had the full responsibility,” said Fulton, speaking of Lakra’s rise.Lakra made full use of the dragflicking opportunity, scoring nine goals in 10 games from the PCs. He sounded the board twice in the third place playoff game against HIL GC as Toofans finished third.Toofans coach Pasha Gademan gave an insight into Lakra’s development from the last HIL edition where he had scored five goals. More than his dragflicking skills, it was his improvement as an outfield player that has impressed Gademan.“Last year I thought he was processing game situations very slowly. His understanding of the game, what to do and how to bring in his own strength took time,” said the coach, “But this year he grew and picked up fast. From the beginning, he was active. In the last three matches, I think he played nearly 60 minutes. We didn’t take him off anymore. It’s bizarre how quickly he picked up the system we play in. And I think he has a lot of players in the team to thank for it.”Lakra is naturally pleased having delivered for Toofans. “For the PCs, I planned with the coach as to what to do, did lots of video analysis and it all worked out. I also got tips from Peillat last season and it helped,” said the youngster, who also benefited from the tours to Europe and China with India A.Apart from Lakra, several other youngsters have also caught Fulton’s eye.“I think Arshdeep (Singh) is coming good. (Araijeet Singh) Hundal post his injury is also coming back to some kind of form. Rabichandra (Singh Moirangthem) did good. I also like Anmol Ekka. He’s shown he can fill a role,” added Fulton.Irrespective of the youngsters coming in, Fulton knows the difficulty of the job at hand and wants the players to really step up.“We’re going to have to train at the level of World Cups,” said Fulton before adding, “We really want to push hard this year. It’s going to mean a lot of commitment and a lot of sacrifice.”Hopefully, they will be able to do that and deliver at both the major events to be held within a span of just three weeks.