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What's the story?
Indian striker Mandeep Singh expressed his wish to start off the season on a winning note ahead of the Indian Hockey team's FIH Pro League 2020 matches against the Netherlands. He also talked about the importance of having good coordination with the midfielders of the team.
The background
The second edition of the FIH Pro League will begin soon. India had skipped the first season and will make their debut in the 2020 edition. The former Olympic gold medalists will face off against the best hockey teams in the business and gear up for the mega-event, Tokyo Olympics 2020.
The heart of the matter
Mandeep Singh has been one of the most consistent strikers of the team and talking to PTI on Thursday (9th January), he reflected his views on the upcoming set of matches against the Dutch.
"We have always played close matches against the Netherlands and although we have not played them over the past year, we believe we have improved as a team with good structure and scoring capabilities," said Singh.
The two games will be played in Bhubaneshwar and speaking about the home advantage, he continued:
"Also we are playing at home, so we would definitely not want to let our fans down. We want to make a winning start to the season."
Singh had scored the most number of goals for India last year but as per him, his coordination with the team's senior midfielders helped him emerge as a game-changer. This is what he had to say regarding his partnership with his colleagues:
"If I am scoring goals then it is because of the assists I am getting from my teammates. My understanding with seniors S V Sunil, Ramandeep (Singh), and Akashdeep (Singh) is much better as we have spent more time together. We discuss and debate a lot off the field and try to analyze how we played and where we could have created a gap and how we need to work inside the circle. This has really helped me a lot to improve as a striker."
What's next?
It will be interesting to see if Mandeep Singh can continue his fine form in the year 2020 as well. The Indian team faces the Netherlands on 18 and 19 January.
