RAJGIR, Sept. 7 -- The past four summers have been more like a spring for India, verdant and abloom, yielding medals at the Olympics, top prizes in continental competitions, podium spots in the Pro League. However, Harmanpreet Singh and Co have found this year's heat to be scorching. Ever since they resumed Pro League duties in June, the world No.8 outfit has been going downhill, looking very unlike the team that went toe-to-toe with the world's best in the previous seasons. First, they lost seven successive matches in the Pro League to finish eighth out of nine teams, just about escaping relegation. Then, they lost three of their four friendlies to Australia in Perth last month. Though they are still undefeated here at the Asia Cup, India - the only team to medal at the last two Olympics - are struggling to beat teams who didn't even manage to qualify for the last three Games (barring Japan who played Tokyo as hosts). "Paris was a good result. They played really well. I just saw them play here in Perth and was a bit disappointed as they looked slow and sluggish. Maybe they were at the end of a high intensity training block in preparation for the Asia Cup. Their defensive structure looked a bit disorganised," former Indian women's team coach Neil Hawgood, who helped them qualify for the 2016 Olympics after a gap of 36 years, told HT from Perth. In Rajgir, India struggled to beat China and Japan. Not considering the game against world No.88 Kazakhstan where they won 15-0, the hosts were almost beaten by defending champions South Korea on Wednesday before rallying to draw. "India face the same problems as before. In defence, they are not consistent, they give away too many PCs and collect many cards. They rely heavily on Harmanpreet," FIH Master Coach Siegfried Aikman told HT from Bangladesh where he recently took up the role of coaching their junior team. Aikman is right. Had it not been for world-class drag-flicker Harmanpreet, who scored a hat-trick in a 4-3 win against China and a brace in India's 3-2 victory over Japan, the result could have gone against India....