Rajpal oozes confidence

A day after the Indian men’s hockey team was announced for the Asian Champions Trophy in China, skipper Rajpal Singh sounded confident that the chosen squad would do their best to win the tournament.
“I expect a tough tournament. We play hosts China in our first match and we would want to start off well as that sets the tempo for the rest of the tournament,“ Rajpal said on Wednesday.

On the strengths of the side, Rajpal said, “We have one of the best counterattacks in the world.“

Asked about new coach Michael Nobbs’ way of functioning, Rajpal said, “He has been able to gel well with the team and this will be his first assignment as the Indian coach.“

On players of the calibre of Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Halappa and Prabhjot Singh missing the cut, he said, “This is the best possible squad that we could chose.
Apart from that, I would not want to comment on this further.“

The Indian skipper does believe that a certain amount of pressure is important to excel at the highest level.

“I do not take too much of pressure but a certain amount of it is important to bring out one’s best at this level,“ Rajpal said.

The 18-member Indian team will leave for the sixnation in China by the end of this month.