I was confident of making it to the team: Danish
Wajiha Shah
Indian hockey team player from Allahabad, Danish Mujtaba, was confident of making it to the team announced today for Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament to be held at Ipoh, Malaysia from May 5 to 15. That confidence had stemmed from his performances at the practice sessions during the camp.
Talking to The Indian Express, Danish, who is a midfielder, confided that despite being a part of the Indian team in important tournaments like Commonwealth Games 2010 and the Guangzhou Asian Games 2010 in which India won medals, the reason why he was almost sure that his name will feature in the team list today was because he had been playing well at the practice sessions during the preparatory camp. “ I may have been doing well in important tournaments in the past but I personally feel that it is your present form which makes the difference. I am quite satisfied with my present form,” he explained.
Talking about the team’s prospects in the Azlan Shah hockey, he said, “We have been really practising hard at the camp for the past one month. A lot of emphasis is being given to defence. We were slightly out of practice for a couple of months after the Asian Games but this camp has brought the players back into form. We have been performing well in Azlan Shah hockey and hope to repeat our performance this year too.”
When asked if the absence of the senior players will affect the team, the 22-year-old said, “ The absence of senior players does makes some difference. Experienced players like Rajpal Singh and Tushar Khandekar will not be there due to injury problems. However, we will go all out to perform our level best in the competition. A good show at Azlan Shah hockey and the tournaments thereafter will be encouraging ahead of the Olympic qualifiers which are of prime importance to us now.”