IELTS' loss, Hockey's gain: Rajinder Singh's rise to the Indian team

He dribbles past three defenders, bisecting two to perfection to penetrate the shooting circle. He puts the ball to Abhishek, who traps and passes to Gurjant Singh.

Gurjant deflected it into the goal.

It was the only goal India scored in a 1-4 drubbing by world champions Germany in the 2024-25 FIH Pro League at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

A day later, India would edge past the Germans 1-0 in the reverse fixture.

Rajinder, having gotten the possession just outside the 23-yard line this time, took a couple of steps ahead and drove the ball into the shooting circle with a powerful flick.

Mandeep Singh, in front of the goal, failed to trap it cleanly.

The rebound fell to Gurjant, who scored his second goal in as many matches.

Rajinder returned empty handed from both matches – neither goals nor assists to show for.

But in those two matches, the midfielder from Sant Nagar in Sirsa, Haryana, had all the required answers for why he is rated highly by pundits and fans alike.

Interestingly, Rajinder, 22, had made his senior international debut in October last year against the same opponents in a two-match Test series.

As India started to build afresh post the 2024 Paris Olympics, Rajinder was one of the first few names drafted in by coach Craig Fulton.

“Pehla match tha toh kaafi struggle tha (I struggled a lot on my debut match),” recalled Rajinder.

“I did not have a lot of understanding of the playing structure and how (I fit in the system),” he added.

That, however, is a thing of past. In just over ten matches with the Indian team, Rajinder has grown into his role as a mid-fielder, adept at both defence and exploiting gaps to create play.

It was only days before his debut that Rajinder landed a massive paycheck in the player auctions as the Hockey India League made a return following a seven-year hiatus.

Having set himself a base price of Rs 2 lakh, Rajinder kicked off a massive bidding war. He was eventually recruited by the Hyderabad Toofans for more than 11 times his base price at Rs 23 lakh.

Though Rajinder was often overshadowed by other exciting youngsters in the Toofans setup, he played a crucial role in helping them to a runner-up finish and did enough for Fulton to name him in the Pro League squad.

At the Toofans, Rajinder played alongside the likes of Gonzalo Peillat – one of the finest exponents of drag flicks in the world.

The youngster, whose strength lies in his raw speed to outrun defenders, picked Peillat’s brains to improve his defensive skills and add drag flick to his arsenal.

Even at the recently concluded Pro League leg in Bhubaneswar, the ball usually found Rajinder during variations as India struggled to breach the penalty corner defence in eight matches.

It’s an area of the game that Rajinder is constantly working on.

“There’s a conscious effort being made to improve my drag flicks. That’s an area the team wants me to focus on and get better," said Rajinder.

Now an India regular, Rajinder’s tryst with hockey only started because he wanted to somehow own a hockey stick. Playing seriously wasn’t really on his mind when he first started sometime in 2010.

“I joined the academy only because I saw my cousin get a new hockey stick when he started playing,” said Rajinder.

But much to his dismay, the first three days he went to the academy he was just made to run laps around the ground. No stick was gifted.

Dejected, he stopped going.

The coach Gurmej Singh visited his home a few days later, enquiring why he stopped going to play.

“I said ‘aapne mujhe hockey nahi di. You did not give me hockey stick,” said Rajinder with a laugh.

The coach gave in and gifted him a new hockey stick. There has been no looking back since.

From defence to midfield

Currently a midfield maestro, it was not always the preferred position for Rajinder.

In fact, he started out as a defender at the famed Namdhari FC. It was only during the sub-junior national championships in 2017 that he switched to the midfield.

Namdhari were a midfielder short for one of the matches and the coach asked him to fill in.

Rajinder, who used to warm the bench as a defender with better players in the mix, saw it as an opportunity to get some game time.

The move worked wonders for Rajinder, helping him rise through the ranks rather quickly.

Corona – a blessing in disguise

But it was not until after 2020 that he would start to make big strides in the domestic circuit.

The covid-19 pandemic proved to be a blessing in disguise for Rajinder.

Sardar Singh, the former India captain, returned to Sant Nagar during the lockdown.

Sardar used to train at a ground in the village and he took the kids in the locality under his wings. Rajinder was one of them.

The youngster, who idolizes Sardar, absorbed everything the Khel Ratna awardee had to offer.

He has modelled his game on Sardar’s style so much that, Siddharth Pandey – one of the country’s top hockey analyst and broadcasters dubs him ‘a Sardar clone.’

The similarities are aplenty between the two – from the way they are built physically to how they drive the ball forward with their agility.

Rajinder’s move in the first Germany match in the Pro League was straight out of Sardar’s top drawer.

The journey hasn't always been smooth for Rajinder. But his brother's trust on him has done the trick.

It has helped India unearth a gem – someone who, if nurtured properly, can go on to serve the Indian national hockey team for years to come.