Nobbs goes easy on practice to give players time to recover

Biswajyoti Brahma, TNN

NEW DELHI: Unlike other teams, they are not playing practice matches ahead of the London Olympics qualifiers, but the Indian players and their Australian coach Michael Nobbs are not worried. They believe they will get enough practice in the tournament itself.

“We are playing practice matches amongst ourselves so there is no need for playing any other team now. Furthermore, we are first up against Singapore and Italy. These matches will serve as practice matches,” Indian captain Bharat Chetri said on Thursday.

Interestingly, Singapore are the youngest team in the competition with an average age of 21 while Italy are the least experienced (their average age is also 21). They are 41st and 28th respectively in the world rankings. India are No.10.

The Indian team went through a scheduled practice session on Tuesday afternoon at the Major Dhyanchand National Stadium.

Coach Nobbs said the players were divided into two teams which played two practice matches against each other, using the strategies that the team would employ in the qualifiers. Chetri said that the team was in a positive mood. “All the players are fully fit, very positive as well as motivated. It’s a good team with some really talented players.”

The 30-year-old skipper said the team had decided to cut down on the practice sessions from two in a day to one in order to give the players enough time to recover. “During our free time, we are going to the gym as well as swimming to remain in perfect shape for the qualifiers. This is a very important event considering that we missed out on playing in the Olympics last time. We are not leaving anything to chance.”

Nobbs said the team was peaking at the right time and both Yuvraj Walmiki and Tushar Khandkar, who had injury concerns, were fully fit. “We have 18 players who could be sent to the ground to play during any time in the game. I would say everybody could get a place in the first XI.”

Drag-flicker Sandeep Singh, meanwhile, said that India were well-placed at the moment since they have the luxury of having three drag-flickers in their ranks – Sandeep himself, VR Raghunath and Rupinderpal Singh. “I have worked hard on my defence skills with Dilip Tirkey. “In the last 10 days, I have learnt things as a defender that I never learnt in the past.”