New Delhi, Nov. 18 -- With an Olympic bronze medal hanging from his neck, PR Sreejesh retired on a high as a player after the 2024 Paris Games. Now in his second innings as head coach of the India Under-21 team, the former goalkeeper wants to touch fresh heights, this time as coach at the Junior World Cup. It's been more than a year since the 37-year-old took charge of India colts, guiding them to the 2024 Junior Asia Cup gold and 2025 Sultan of Johor Cup silver, but the Junior World Cup in Tamil Nadu from November 28 to December 10 will be Sreejesh's true test as a tactician. It won't be an easy outing despite playing at home. For starters, the field has been expanded from 16 to 24 teams, meaning there will be many unknown entities lurking with potential to cause an upset. "The matches in the initial stages are going to be tricky because some teams are really low ranked. You can expect a huge number of goals in the league round. But with European teams and Australia, we can always predict (that matches will be of high level) because their club matches are really intense," said Sreejesh, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan - India's third highest civilian honour - in April. "They play quality matches at the club level every weekend. So, the maturity level of their Under-21 team is really high. I tell my players that we can't take them lightly. We need to match their intensity, using our advantage which is skill, speed, our way of playing hockey, mixing all the flavours, be more disciplined and execute our plans." The team topping each of the six groups will qualify for the quarter-finals along with two best second ranked teams. The Rohit-led India are in an easy Pool B, grouped with Chile (Nov 28), Oman (Nov 29) and Switzerland (Dec 2) and are expected to make the last eight easily. India have got enough number of games under their belt going into the tournament with some players having played in the HIL and also for the senior India team. The team's last outing was the Sultan of Johor Cup where India finished as runners-up, losing to Australia in the final....