The Indian men's hockey team midfielder Hardik Singh, who was a part of the team's recent tours to Argentina and Europe, expressed that the results from the tours are an outcome of high-intensity training, which the team has been doing since a year at the camp.
"The Argentina and Europe success are an outcome of high-intensity training, which we have been doing at the camp for one year. We trained in such a way that it has kept us in that competitive frame of mind throughout. We have been creating match situations in our training, which I feel has really helped us during our tour," said Hardik in a Hockey India release.
Playing their first top international competition after a one-year hiatus, the Indian team registered 2-2 (3-2 SO) and 3-0 wins against the Olympic Champions Argentina in their FIH Hockey Pro League matches.
The team also secured 4-3, 4-4, 0-1 and 4-2 results in their practice matches, which they played against the home side as a part of their preparations for the Olympic Games in July.
Reflecting on the overall team performance, Hardik said, "I feel results of first two practice matches set the tone and helped us excel in the Pro League matches."
"I feel we didn't play good hockey in the first Pro League match, yet we won. It was all because of the resilience that the team showed during the match. This team has built that fighting spirit over the past few months, and that is one of the key reasons behind our successful Argentina as well as Europe tour. Moreover, we played as a unit, and that reflected on both the tours," the young gun added.
Speaking about the learnings from the tour, the Jalandhar-born Hardik said that there's always room for learning, and the team can improve on their finishing skills.
( With inputs from ANI )
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