The Indian men's hockey team's preparations for the Paris Olympic Games got off to a terrible start with a 1-5 defeat against Australia in Perth, with Tom Wickham grabbing a brace.
Game 1 of the five-match test series witnessed an Indian side that was slow and ponderous, and Australia took advantage right from the off, Tim Brand employing some clever stick work to give the home side the lead in the third minute. India held on for the rest of the first quarter, but Wickham made it 2-0 in the 20th minute, tapping in the rebound after Aran Zalewski, playing in his 250th game, saw his effort blocked by defenders.
India were making basic errors - with plenty of misplaced passes and mistraps while under no pressure. The break did not seem to help as the game truly went away from the Indians in the third quarter. First, Joel Rintala squeezed a strike in from a narrow angle in the 37th minute, after which Wickham got his brace with a searing shot from the right side of the box to make it 4-0 a minute late.
India's only consolation came in fourth quarter, as they counter-attacked from an Australian PC. The transition ended with Gurjant Singh receiving the ball with his back to goal, turning and striking the ball past Andrew Charter in the Australian goal. The rout was complete in the 57th minute as Jeremy Hayward's PC was saved by Krishan Pathak but Ogilvie Flynn pounced on the rebound to make it 5-1 to Australia.
India don't have too much time to dwell on the loss, as the two teams face each other tomorrow at 2:00 PM IST.
(Relive the action from the game as it happened, below)