‘Team-building activities in SA made us stronger’

Harmanpreet Singh

Indian men's hockey team skipper Harmanpreet Singh feels the team-building activities they did in their recent tour of South Africa have made the side
stronger.

India had toured South Africa for a four-nation series, winning against the hosts and registered a win and a draw against France, while their only loss came against the Netherlands.

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On Sunday, India produced an emphatic performance to drub Ireland 4-0 in their final home leg match of the FIH Hockey Pro League.

India are currently third in the points table, behind the Netherlands and Australia.

"I think we came back from our South Africa tour feeling mentally and physically fresh. We did a lot of team-building activities there that made us a stronger unit. I think we performed well here and stood up to the challenge posed by top teams of the world," Harmanpreet said after Sunday's victory.

In the home leg of Pro League, India began with a 4-1 win over Spain in Bhubaneswar, followed by a 4-2 shootout win over the Netherlands.

Although India lost 4-6 to Australia, they beat Ireland 1-0 before coming to Rourkela.

Echoing Harmanpreet's thoughts, vice-captain Hardik Singh stated, "I think we showed a lot of character in these matches, both in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. We built on our performance from match to match and we considerably improved our defence. These matches were crucial in our preparations for the Paris Olympics, and now we will go back to the drawing board and analyse how we can further up our performance from here on."

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