Hockey striker Mandeep eyes winning start to season in FIH Pro League

Set to make their debut in the FIH Pro League against the Netherlands at home, India striker Mandeep Singh on Thursday said his team would look to make a winning start to the season with the two-match contest later this month. After having skipped the inaugural edition of the Pro League last year, India will take on the Netherlands in their first leg of the event in Bhubaneswar on January 18 and 19.

And the young striker believes the world no. 5 hosts will give the Dutch side, ranked third, a tough fight in the upcoming contests. "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 Mandeep, who scored maximum goals for India last year.

"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," he added. Mandeep feels the share of his success should also go to his teammates, without whose help it wouldn't have been possible for him to shine on the turf.

"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 to 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."

Mandeep said with back-to-back matches against the Netherlands scheduled, the team management's primary focus during the national coaching camp that started here on December 29 was on fitness and recovery. "Since we will be playing back-to-back high-intensity matches in the FIH Hockey Pro league with little less than 24 hours of recovery time between matches, the training sessions are planned in such a way that we have red sessions (high-intensity training) on back-to-back days and then rest or train light the next session," he said.

"Robin Arkel (Scientific Advisor) planned extremely tough gym sessions in the previous camp. Even though we are a fit team, the focus was to build on our strength much more. "The effort has paid off because our scores in Yo-Yo test this time have been better than before. This was important as speed and fitness is going to play a major role in the next 7-8 months of intense hockey that we will play," he added.