“This was Jugi’s Olympics,” said India coach Craig Fulton after the Hockey India League (HIL) final.
Ever since his breakthrough to the Indian team in 2022, Jugraj Singh has been synonymous with speed in his drag flicks but consistency has often eluded him. With the national team, he is seen as the second in command to his skipper, two-time Olympic medallist Harmanpreet Singh.
He was deemed a reserve at both the home World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics the following year. There was no bronze medal for the 28-year-old.
But at Rarh Bengal Tigers, who paid Rs. 48 lakh for his services, he is the designated no.1 flicker from behind the 23-yard circle, ahead of Sam Lane and veteran Rupinder Pal Singh.
On Saturday, before the final, his Tigers assistant coach Deepak Thakur told Jugraj, “This is your stage, you have to show what you got.”
And when he got the platform, Jugraj put on an exhibition in drag-flicking, firing his team to its maiden title with a hat-trick. He finished the tournament as the leading scorer with 12 goals and four more than the next best from penalty corners.
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Going into the game, Hyderabad Toofans had shored up its penalty corner defence in its eight-game unbeaten run, conceding six goals from 53 short corners – a goal for nearly every nine penalty corners. In the final, Jugraj converted three from the eight penalties he took.
With his team falling a goal behind twice, it was Jujrag, who brought the Tigers back into it. For the first one, he went hard and low, giving Dominic Dixon no chance of saving it on his right side. But immediately after, inside his own circle, Jugraj mistrapped a pass, conceding a penalty corner, which Amandeep Lakra made the most of.
And this is where Jugraj has seemingly come of age. Guidance from Rupinder through the HIL has helped Jugraj keep his head clear through the game, not letting success and mistakes consume him.
“As a senior, it’s my duty to ensure he is on the right track and make sure he has to separate defending and penalty corner duties. It’s not that if you score a goal from a PC, doesn’t mean that you are playing really well or if you didn’t score, doesn’t mean you are playing poorly. So that’s what I have been trying to tell him repeatedly,” said the former international, as Soorma’s Harmanpreet, sitting next to him, concurred. “If he doesn’t score, he tends to think a lot,” added Harmanpreet.
In the second half, when the Tigers won two successive penalty corners, Jugraj stepped up once again to put his team in the lead. First, he flicked it powerfully to the right of Bikramjit Singh and then for the third, drilled it low to his left to beat the ‘keeper and the post man.
Toofans head coach Pasha Gademan bemoaned his PC defence being ‘too open’ and not being ‘tight enough’ for the goals but Jugraj ensured he carried out his strengths and capitalise for his side.
After the final, Thakur claimed that Jugraj is the no. 1 drag-flicker right now but Fulton has urged caution.
“Harman has done it in both the World Cup and Olympics. This was Jugi’s Olympics. The beautiful thing is he is in form. That’s good for India,” said Fulton.
Jugraj was left out of the Olympics 16-man squad with Amit Rohidas and Sanjay preferred to provide variations from short corners. During the HIL, the pair managed only three goals while playing second fiddle to world-class flickers Jip Janssen and Alexander Hendrickx in their respective franchises. The next best Indian scorers in the tournament after Jugraj were Harmanpreet and junior international Amandeep Lakra with five goals apiece.
With Fulton having a close eye on the HIL proceedings, from the ‘Tower’ behind the goal, Jugraj would feel he has made his case to be the man for the big stage.