Skipper Manpreet Singh’s Indian team, on Sunday night, left for their first tour under newly-appointed Chief Coach Graham Reid from Bengaluru.
The Indian Men’s Hockey Team will play will play the tour opener on May 8 on a tour consisting of two matches against Australia A, two matches against Australian National Hockey Team and one match against Western Australia Thundersticks club team.
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The tour, Manpreet Singh believes will give the team a chance to further understand Reid’s style and try different combinations ahead of the FIH Men’s Series Finals Bhubaneswar Odisha 2019.
Speaking about the learning with new coach, “The new Chief Coach constantly reminds us why a team player holds more value to him than an individual player with excellent skill set.”
Further, he said, “He also instills winning mentality in every player and confident body language has also been an area of focus apart from game-specific tactics over the past three weeks of training under Graham Reid.”
The team, which sees the return of experienced defender and key dragflicker Rupinder Pal Singh, is also with an interesting mix of experienced players and new comers will be tested ahead of the important FIH Men’s Series Finals Bhubaneswar Odisha 2019 where India needs to finish on top to ensure a place in the Olympic Qualifier in October.
Speaking about the team, the Indian Captain said, “Playing a world class team like Australia ahead of the important Series in June will only help build our confidence. We had a good tournament in Malaysia in March and some of the youngsters did well there.
On debutant Jaskaran Singh and the kind of exposure the young players can have, Manpreet Singh sounded hopeful,” While Jaskaran Singh will make his International debut, it will be Gursahibjit’s second tournament with the Indian team and Armaan Qureshi is also returning to the team after a long gap. I am confident these players will live up to the expectations. It will be good exposure for them against the World No.2 side. “