Rajpal Singh & Co get down to business

The Indian men’s hockey side couldn’t have asked for a better warm-up campaign ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Rajpal Singh & Co have won four out of the five practice matches. Interestingly, they haven’t tasted defeat yet.

India played three practice matches against England alone, tasting victory twice. While they won 3-1 on two occasions, the third match saw them earn a 3-3 draw. They later beat South Africa 2-1, while they beat Tobago and Trinidad 5-3 on Saturday.

Though the performance has been good so far, the wins have not got into the heads of the players. “It is good that we won four out of the five matches, but they were practice matches after all. We will continue our good show and try to win the matches in the Games,” skipper Rajpal Singh told DNA.

“We have some strong teams like Australia and Pakistan in our group, so we will have to play really well,” he added.

According to coach Harendra Singh, the practice matches havebeen a learning experience and have helped the team with strategy.

“The wins have boosted our morale, but we will not be overconfident. During these matches, we have seen a remarkable improvement in our defence. With our matches against England, we tried to minimise our errors and it is clear from the fact that we did not give them even a single penalty corner in one of the matches,” the coach said.

The coach also said that their attack, which was weak during the World Cup, has also improved.

“In the practice matches, we have managed to get five to six penalty corners on an average. Dhanajay Mahadik and Sandeep Singh are also looking good when it comes to converting those chances. This is a good sign,” the coach added.