WITH OLYMPICS LOOMING, SREEJESH’s OUTFIT BRACE FOR GERMAN CHALLENGE

S2H Team

The World No.4-ranked Indian men’s team braces for a tough challenge against No. 6 Germany in the first of a four-match tour of Europe scheduled to begin on 28 February 2021 with an encounter in Krefeld.

India captain PR Sreejesh is upbeat on playing a competitive match after a year and is relishing the challenge.

“The entire team is very excited and eager to get on with the first match. It’s been more than a year since we played a competitive match, and we are prepared for the challenge,” expressed the star Indian goalkeeper.

“It’s been about five days since we arrived in Krefeld and the weather too has not been too cold. It was about 16-18 degrees when we practiced yesterday, and we are quite comfortable playing in this weather.” 

India’s last match came was in the FIH Hockey Pro League in January and February last year where their adversaries were the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia on home turf in Bhubaneswar.

“Not playing competitive matches for over a year has been very difficult, mostly mentally than physically. But the coaching staff ensured the sessions during the national camp were planned in such a way that it would excite us players and they tried to create an environment of competition in the group. Though we played a lot of matches internally over the past few months in SAI, the next few weeks in Europe will show exactly where we are at in terms of performance,” Sreejesh said.

The Indian captain stressed that this tour would help the team set the parameters in their build-up to the Olympics.

“These matches against Germany and Great Britain are super important for our preparations. It is an opportunity to test ourselves tactically, physically and mentally. We are very lucky to be able to play against quality teams, despite the ongoing pandemic. This outing will help us set the parameter and enable us to plan our months leading up to the Olympics.”

Referring to the contests against Germany, Sreejesh said, “We have watched this team closely, analyzed their game and replicated how we must play against them during the past few weeks in camp. They play man-to-man and our style of play will be slightly tweaked in order to succeed against them. The whole idea is to implement what we have been doing in camp these past few months and the focus will be on ourselves.”

India will commence proceedings on 28th February (Sunday) at 1730hrs IST.

The second match on Tuesday, 2 March 2021 at 8.30 pm IST will be live streamed on the Watch.Hockey platform (Both phone and web version available).