India Coach Craig Fulton: 'We Were Physically Stronger Than All Teams In Asia Cup'

Last Updated:September 07, 2025, 23:38 IST

Men's hockey coach Craig Fulton praised India for showing their strength of depth and intelligence to win the 2025 Asia Cup title.

Indian men's hockey team head coach Craig Fulton

Craig Fulton, the Indian men’s hockey coach, was delighted with the strength and intelligence shown by his team after they beat South Korea 4-1 to secure the 2025 Asia Cup title. He said the team ticked the most important boxes, which were being the best in Asia in terms of depth, and beating the opponents in fitness.

Dilpreet Singh scored a brace as the Men in Blue shrugged off the group stage jitters with a clinical performance to outplay the defending champions and lift their fourth Asia Cup title after a gap of eight years.

“It was a good squad performance," Fulton said afterwards, as quoted by PTI. “If you take seven games in 10 days that’s really difficult to do. We were physically stronger than all the teams here I think and that’s No.1 thing to do. The rest was very little. I said before, we want to be No.1 in Asia, we want to build depth in our squad and that’s the No.1 thing. I think we are getting there now."

“We prepared well, we executed well. We didn’t start so well but finished really strong, so really happy the way we finished playing seven games in 10 days… The team is super intelligent, so whatever they try they do. We do a lot of homework on the opposition and ourselves, more on ourselves than others. When they commit to doing something, they do it well. That’s what I like," he added.

This enables India to directly qualify for next year’s World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Focus remains on depth to challenge European giants: Craig Fulton

Fulton, though happy, said the team still had some work to do to challenge in a ‘different type of hockey’ against Europe’s giants and Australia.

“We are just getting there. There are two different types of hockey, Asian hockey and European hockey. All the powerhouses are in Europe and obviously Australia. So we are trying to build depth in what we do here and go and challenge other teams in Europe. That’s what we are trying to do," he said.

“We have the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, South Africa tour, Hockey India League and Pro League. We have the World Cup and the Asian Games three weeks apart, so it’s about building depth. In the next 12-14 months, we will have to use the competitions to see where we are," he added.

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