EXCLUSIVE: Only focussed about upcoming Olympic Qualifiers — Mandeep Singh

The Indian men’s hockey team forward line packs in loads of flair that often cause much sweat for the opposition defenders. Mandeep Singh is part of that exciting Indian strike force – a youngster, who has steadily but surely evolved into a much-improved striker from being a bubbling youngster when he made his senior international debut at the FIH Hockey World League Round II Tourney in New Delhi five years back.

The arrival of Mandeep back then was seen as the best thing to have happened to Indian hockey – his senior national team call-up was fast-forwarded by his superb hockey skills in the inaugural Hockey India League in 2013, where he showcased his goal-hungry skills in ample measure, racking up 10 goals to be the second-highest goal scorer of the league, only behind Sandeep Singh’s 11 goals. No wonder, he won the Upcoming Youngster of the Tournament award in the 2013 edition.

Now at 24, Mandeep still brings a schoolboyish enthusiasm to the Indian team like his junior hockey team days but make no mistake he has a much better thought process about his hockey skills. The youngster, who is employed with ONGC, quips:

Hockey India League was a great opportunity for me to prove my worth and I tried to make the most of it while playing first for Ranchi Rays and later for Delhi Waveriders. I owe a lot to HIL for making me a better player.

There is intense competition for places in the Indian forward line that has a healthy blend of seasoned players as well as talented youngsters, and Mandeep is fully aware of it. “Healthy competition is good for the team – every player is striving to give his best and help the team perform, and I’m no different. I think a strong forward line bodes well for the upcoming tournaments and beyond,” says Mandeep who is a product of the Surjit Hockey Academy.

Competition for places apart, it has become increasingly important for players to stay injury-free as staging comebacks from injury-induced rehabs can be very challenging. He puts forth his perspective:

You can’t control injuries, and they are bound to happen when you are giving your best for the country. But the challenge is to overcome the injury and rehab phase and hit peak form on return. Look at SV Sunil, he was out of the national team for a long time owing to an injury, and he now looks settled after playing two tournaments. Any player who is out of action for five-six months will take time to understand the structure the team is adopting, and it is never easy.

Among the current lot of Indian forwards, Mandeep is considered highly opportunistic, and that probably explains why we see him come up with exciting goals. “The role of a centre-forward is to score goals, and I practice a lot during my training sessions on how to time my jumps while going for deflection goals or setting it up for my fellow forwards. I have a great understanding with Sunil, Ramandeep, Akashdeep and Lalit and these trust help,” he says.

The Jallandhar-born youngster has also earned a reputation for engineering penalty corners in his own cheeky way. “The objective is to optimise our raids into the opposition circle. If we are not able to score field goals, it is better to create penalty corner situations since we have a battery of power-packed drag-flickers in the form of Rupinder, Harmanpreet, Varun and Amit,” he reasons.

Mandeep is always looking to raise the performance bar and knows too well the improvement areas he needs to focus on. “Every game or every tournament is a learning curve for me – I’m looking to improve my decision-making in the opposition ‘D’.”

Mandeep has been part of silver-medal winning 2016 and 2018 Champions Trophy teams as well as part of the 2018 Asian Champions Trophy gold-winning team besides being part of the bronze-winning 2018 Asian Games team. So which tournament has been most satisfying so far? “The 2016 Champions Trophy that was held in London – I scored important goals against Germany and Great Britain in that tournament, and we were unlucky to finish runners-up going down to Australia in a shootout,” he recounts.

2019 has been a good one for Mandeep so far – he had emerged as top goal-scorer (7 goals) at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, scoring a sizzling hat-trick in India’s 7-3 win over Canada – Mandeep also was also the top goal-scorer (6 goals) at the Olympic Test Event, where he slammed a hat-trick in India’s 6-3 romp over Japan. But the one hat-trick he fondly remembers is the one he scored in India’s 5-4 win over Germany in 5-6 place classification tie of the 2014 Hockey World League Final Round in New Delhi. “Germany is a tough side to beat and the way we fought to win that game was special – it was our first win over Germany in many years,” he says with a tinge of excitement.

Mandeep did not feature in the 2016 Rio Olympics, but the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could be his Olympic debut, but the youngster is not looking that far. “I’m not thinking of the Olympics as we have the Olympic qualifiers coming up. I’m focussed on the Olympic qualifiers,” he signs off with a grin as he rushes for a team meeting at the ongoing national camp in Bengaluru.