India's hockey fraternity must be eagerly waiting for the men's team's performance in Paris, whether they can convert the bronze in the Tokyo Olympics four years ago to the gold or silver in the forthcoming Paris Olympics. 

They are going to have a tough campaign in their group right from the beginning. But the new style the Indian men's hockey team have adopted and been applying consistently seems more interesting. That is the fast and counter-attacking exhibition is added with 'areal passes' to beat closely-guarded spaces on the turf. 

India might not be the only team to use this tactic frequently in Paris. It’s an increasingly frequent sighting in the men’s game especially.

“I think Belgium was the first to tactically use it from 2018, and now a lot more teams have practiced and seen the benefits of it,” India head coach Craig Fulton told Indian Express.

He continued, “There are a lot more aerial passes being played now, I’d say at least a third of the passes in the final third. The skill level has improved, so teams can do it on the move. It’s not just a dead ball. And it is very high-risk-high-reward.”

Hardik, India’s vice-captain and one of the best exponents in this new style of play defined, “For me, almost every training session I practice my aerials and it has become a part of my natural game. I just think that if I am able to hit 20 really good aerial balls in a session, then it becomes easier for me to hit 2-3 good ones during a match.” 

“There are some sessions when we work as a team on structures and strategies, and if my aerials work well in those, then it's OK. But if not, I work on it more on my own time. I come 30 minutes early to the training, finish warm up, and just throw some aerials.”

"I do this quite a lot. I want to hit, say, 30-40 really good aerials in a week of training,” Hardik revealed while speaking to Indian Express before the Indian team left for Europe.