India hockey captain Manpreet Singh insists team not getting carried away after beating Olympic champions Argentina; side will grind it out with more Pro League ties ahead of Tokyo Games
India captain Manpreet Singh during the second Pro League tie against Argentina in Buenos Aires recently
The Indian hockey team proved that their preparations to succeed at the Tokyo Olympics later this year are on track by beating reigning Olympic champions Argentina twice in the FIH Pro League double header in Buenos Aires recently.
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Skipper Manpreet Singh, 28, led from the front as the Indians beat the Argentines 3-2 via a shootout in the first fixture on April 11 and then exhibited a dominant 3-0 win over the hosts 24 hours later.
In an interview with mid-day, Manpreet insisted that though the victories are massive confidence-boosters, they must continue to work hard as they still have a few more Pro League ties abroad before the ultimate test in Tokyo (July 23 to August 8)—and all this while they adhere to the stringent international COVID-19 restrictions around them.
Edited excerpts from the interview.
On the victories over Argentina: These two wins have given us a lot of confidence. Argentina are a good, attacking team and we did well against them in the practice matches too [India won two, lost one and drew one in their four practice matches in Argentina]. Our ultimate aim is to win a medal at the Tokyo Games and we are working hard for it but before that, we have three more Pro League double headers, against Great Britain [May 8-9], Spain [May 15-16] and Germany [May22-23]. So we have to keep our heads down and focus.
On the forwards not scoring enough goals: Our forwards managed to score just two field goals against Argentina but we are not worried about that because our strategy is that if the forwards are unable to score then they should at least earn penalty corners so that our drag flickers can then take advantage of that. And that’s exactly what happened [drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh scored three of the five goals against the Argentines off penalty corners].
On healthy competition within the team: Be it in the goalkeeping department or defence or the forwardline, there is healthy competition to make it to the playing XI. That’s always better than any player taking his place in the team for granted. Goalkeepers PR Sreejesh [34] and Krishan Pathak [23] were rotated during the matches against Argentina and it worked. Sreejesh has loads of experience and is always sharing that with Pathak, who played his 50th cap for us here, so he is also growing in experience. Among drag flickers, we have the experienced Bob [Rupinderpal Singh, 30, on one hand and the young Harmanpreet Singh, 25, on the other.
On the challenges posed by COVID-19: It’s a challenging time all around the world and our team are taking every precaution and staying within the bio bubble at all times. We are regularly using sanitisers and constantly wearing our masks right up to the time we step onto the ground. Currently, the COVID-19 situation back home is worrying too and we are constantly in touch with our families and advising them to stay indoors. Luckily for me, we grow vegetables in our own backyard, so my parents do not need to go out for anything. Thankfully, as of now, none of our family members are infected.
On pressure, given the Olympics is less than 100 days away: There’s no pressure as such, we are taking every match as it comes. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have to continue working hard. Our coach [Graham Reid] wants us to play good, attacking hockey and so far, we have succeeded in doing that.
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