We are now focusing on 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League: Surender

BENGALURU: The dust has settled on the Indian Men's Hockey Team's Silver medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and the squad is training their focus on the 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League games in Bhubaneshwar in Odisha.

Reflecting on the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Indian defender Surender Kumar said, "We played well in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games overall, and it's just that looking back I feel it would have been nicer if we could have taken our chances in the final then we could have made a comeback."

The Indian men's hockey team played Australia in the final in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and were handed a 0-7 defeat in the Gold medal game. But now that the said chapter is in the past, Surender and Co are keen to dot the i's and cross the t's before they don the blue jersey again.

"We made some mistakes in the final against Australia and we could not execute the plans we had properly. Now in this camp, we will focus on those mistakes from the final and look to work on them so that we don't make the same errors going forward." On the agenda next for the Indian men's hockey team will be the 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League games against New Zealand and Spain.

"Going forward, we are now focusing on the games of the 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League with New Zealand and Spain. We have to work hard and correct our mistakes in the camp now so that the mistakes don't happen again," he added.

"The team and the coaches will sit down in the camp together and analyze things with videos and break it down as we look to improve on our plans," said Surender.

With experience of 165 games under his belt, Surender was also part of the Bronze medal winning team from the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and hopes to make telling contributions again in the next round of games.

"The target for the 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League is that, personally, I hope to make as few mistakes as possible and put my best foot forward so that it doesn't hurt the team. As a team, we will work hard to perform well and play our best game in the 2022-23 FIH Hockey Pro League so that we can get the desired results," he signed off.

The Indian Men's Hockey Team will play their FIH Hockey Pro League 2022/23 games against New Zealand and Spain between October 28 and November 6.