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Indian hockey men’s team will take part in the Fintro Hockey World League (HWL) semi-finals in Antwerp Belgium from June 20 to 5th July. Rupinder Pal Singh said that the team is working on new strategies and trying their best to learn it as soon as possible.
Having initially been dropped from the team, Rupinder, 24, was drafted back in after drag-flicker VR Raghunath suffered an injury and had to withdraw from the tournament. Rupinder, a defender by trade, is expected to be deployed as a midfielder in the HWL as part of coach Paul van Ass’s new experiment.
He said that he is gaining confidence with every passing day by practicing in his new position.
“A new situation is always a challenge for everyone. But I will not allow this to deter my determination to showcase a strong play. I have been practicing and I am gaining confidence with each day,” said Rupinder on playing in a new position.
“Adapting to changes do not happen overnight”
Van Ass had stressed on the need to improve the team's defence and has them working tirelessly on it with goalkeeper PR Sreejesh saying that he feels confident in the new set-up. Rupinder admitted that the defence has improved with the new tactics.
“The defence in this tournament intends to come out strong. We are working on closing the space which will make things tough for the opponents,” revealed Rupinder.
“We are now realizing that, earlier there were gaps which helped the opposition to score against us. This time around we have particularly worked on this area, now awaiting to start putting this learning into play.”
He also said that the team is trying hard to incorporate the change in tactics to their game, but warned that “it won’t happen overnight”.
He said, “I am confident with the strategies that the team is working on and it will yield positive results for the team. Adapting to changes do not happen overnight, but I am sure we will get into the groove soon and start delivering as per plan.”
India are in group A alongside Australia, Pakistan, Poland and France, against who they will play their opening match on 20th June.
