Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist hockey player Shamsher Singh said India will need to work on its execution skills and break the habit of giving soft targets to taste success in a busy calendar year that includes Commonwealth Games and Asiad. . and Hardik Singh.
Eight-time champions India re-wrote history by winning an Olympic hockey medal after 41 years at the Tokyo Games last year, beating Germany 5-4 in the bronze medal event.
But since then it has been a mixed bag for the Manpreet Singh-led side as it failed to defend its Asian Champions Trophy title in Dhaka and then lost 2-5 and 3-5 at the hands of lower-order sides – France and Spain – in the FIH Pro League.
“Tactically, we played better than our first match against Spain in the last game. He scored some easy goals and we failed to capitalize on our chances,” striker Shamsher said in a virtual press conference on Friday.
“We played well in all those matches, we had good pace, we came back but conceded easy targets… we need to work on execution a little bit more.”
With Germany and Argentina looking forward to their next FIH Pro League ties later this month, the Indians know they have little time to pull up their socks.
India will play Germany in a double leg match on March 12 and 13 at the Kalinga Stadium here before taking on Argentina on March 19 and 20.
“My goal is to focus on my normal game, be it Germany or any other team. Our focus is on ourselves,” said midfielder Hardik.
“We are working on the areas in which we need to improve…we will give our 100 per cent and look for good execution.”
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