The 22-year-old from Jalandhar was part of the team that recently toured Argentina and Europe
Follow Us
On the back of a promising tour of Argentina and Europe, Indian men’s hockey team midfielder Hardik Singh on Thursday said the national side needs to improve its finishing skills. He also stressed on the importance of work on the coordination to perform well in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. “I think we need to improve on our finishing. We should convert those chances we create in the opponent’s D,” Hardik said in a release issued by Hockey India.
“We can also work on our coordination, which would help us control the game against our opponents. We want to keep improving each and every day, and keep this momentum going by sticking to our daily training goals,” he further added.
The Indian team has been playing its first top international competition after a one-year gap. They won the opener in a penalty shoot-out before beating hosts Argentina 3-0 in the second game of the two-leg FIH pro league. The 22-year-old from Jalandhar has credited the team’s success at the recent tours of Argentina and Europe to the high-intensity training at the camp.
“The Argentina and Europe success are an outcome of high-intensity training, which we have been doing at the camp for one year,” he said. “We trained in such a way that it has kept us in that competitive frame of mind throughout. We have been creating match situations in our training, which I feel has really helped us during our tour.”
In the practice games against Argentina, the Indian side secured 4-3, 4-4, 0-1 and 4-2 results. They were played as a part of their preparations for the Olympic Games in July and Hardik feels these games helped them a lot in the Pro League matches.
“I feel results of first two practice matches set the tone and helped us excel in the Pro League matches,” Hardik said. “I feel we didn’t play good hockey in the first Pro League match, yet we won. It was all because of the resilience that the team showed during the match.”
“This team has built that fighting spirit over the past few months, and that is one of the key reasons behind our successful Argentina as well as Europe tour. Moreover, we played as a unit, and that reflected on both the tours.”
