Laurels bring weight of expectations, says Abhishek
Haryana’s Abhishek has become a stalwart for India in the forward line. He was recently honored with the Dhanraj Pillay award for Forward of the Year at the sixth annual Hockey India awards.
Abhishek was named forward of the year during Hockey India awards
CHENNAI: For Hockey India, the whitewash against Australia away from home would have served as a stern reality check for the challenges that lie ahead of them at the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024.
India won the hockey gold medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, and expectations are riding high on the team to go all the way this year. India won the gold medal at the Olympics three decades earlier back in 1980.
After being introduced to the game by a friend when he was young, Haryana’s Abhishek has become a stalwart for India in the forward line. He was recently honored with the Dhanraj Pillay award for Forward of the Year at the sixth annual Hockey India awards. With laurels comes more pressure and expectation, the weight of performing well. “After getting the award, there is an expectation from me. Sometimes I feel the pressure but I get a lot of support from my teammates; they motivate me to perform well,” said Abhishek speaking to DT Next from Bengaluru.
The 2024 Olympics would also be the first for the youngster whose career began on a small green pitch in Sonipat. “It is a dream to play at the Olympics, it is the biggest stage of all sports,” he said.
Hockey India was given a run for its money when they played a 5-match test series against Australia, with the Asian Games gold medallists being snubbed to a whitewash. One positive takeaway would be that India didn’t concede a lot of field goals in the series, and Abhishek stressed that the team is working on its deep defence to control the loophole. “The team is concentrating more on fitness, strength training,” he added.
India also got chances in front of goals in terms of penalty corners but wasn’t able to capitalise on them. “Small mistakes matter; every chance matters, and we should have scored most of them. One of the differences I noticed was Australia also got a similar amount of opportunities like us, but they converted them successfully.”
“I hope that we’ve learned from our mistakes and will be able to fix them ahead of the Olympics. We are working on improving a few skills – small shots, penalty corners, keeping up our fitness because the players we’d be facing are physically strong as well,” he added.
India is pitted in Group B at the Olympics and will be facing the likes of Australia, Argentina, and New Zealand. India is slated to open its campaign on August 1 against defending champions Belgium.
