Upbeat Indian men's team ready for FIH Hockey 5s challenge
Jun 03, 2022
Lausanne [Switzerland], June 3 : With just a few hours to go for the inaugural edition of the FIH Hockey 5s, the Indian men's team are ready to leave their mark in the shortest format of the game, which is scheduled to take place on June 4 and 5 in Lausanne.
The Indian team will play their opening match against hosts Switzerland on June 4, followed by their match against Pakistan on the same day. They will then face Malaysia and Poland respectively on June 5.
"We are really excited to be here in Lausanne, it's a great atmosphere out here. We also had good training sessions, and we are fully prepared for the tournament," said Indian captain Gurinder Singh in a statement.
"We will be up against some quality teams and since the format is new, it will be a challenging task for us. It is fast-paced and we will need to adapt to the situations as quickly as possible," he added.
The nine-member squad features Pawan, Sanjay and Rabichandra Singh and Moirangthem. They were part of the Silver-medal winning team at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 of Hockey 5s format.
Speaking about the team's preparedness and the team balance, Gurinder said," It will require a lot of speed and skills. We've worked on short passes, 3D skills and the structure as well. The use of perimeter boards is a new element in this format, and we will try to take advantage of it. We have got three players in the team, who have played this format before, so their experiences have been really helpful for us in our preparations."
Meanwhile, vice-captain Sumit said, "It's a new format for us and we are super excited to play this version of the game. There will be high-scoring and neck to neck games, so our focus will be to play attacking hockey right from the start."
