'Making debut at home ground was a proud moment,' says 20-year-old defender Akshata Abaso Dhekale

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], March 15 : Young defender Akshata Abaso Dhekale made her debut for India Senior Women's Team in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 matches against Germany last week. Speaking of her experience of wearing the Indian jersey for the first time, Akshata said it was a proud moment for her and her family.
"It was a very proud moment for me to be a part of the team. My family was very happy as well. I made my debut in the home ground and it was an unforgettable experience," Akshata said.
She further opened up on her own individual performance and revealed what her teammates told her after the two games.
"My teammates have told me that performance was good considering it was my first tournament. But I felt I made a few errors in the second game due to pressure. I gained a lot of experience in the two games and I hope to improve my game going forward," she added.
Akshata, who hails from the Satara district of Maharashtra, trained at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune, and went on to lead Maharashtra at the Junior Nationals tournament in Kerala in 2019. After a string of solid performances, she was selected for the Indian Junior Women's Team camp. Akshata became a part of the India Junior Women's Team that travelled to Chile for the six-match series in 2021.
Akshata opened up on the differences in playing at the junior and senior levels and revealed the areas where she feels she can improve upon in the future.
"There is a lot of difference between playing at the junior and senior levels. The game speed is quite high at the senior level and the standards are very high," Akshata said.
"Playing against Germany, I realised I have to improve quite a lot to play regularly at this level. I am ready to work hard to ensure I keep getting a chance to play consistently for the senior team," she added.
Both the games against Germany were stretched to a shootout after a 1-1 draw in the regulation time. While Germany picked up a 2-1 win in the Shootout in the first game, India won the second one with a 3-0 scoreline for the shootouts.
Speaking on the team's performance in the double-header, Akshata said: "The team performed really well. In the first game, we gave a good fight, but it was a hard-luck that we did not win in the shootouts.
"But we made a good comeback in the second game as we created a lot of attacking moves and we maintained good coordination among all the players. I learned a lot about how to handle pressure in that match," she further added.
The Indian Women's Hockey Team will be next seen in action when they take on England in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22.