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The midfielder of the Indian men’s hockey team Sumeet is working hard to earn a place in the International Hockey Federation’s squad. Globalism 2023 Bhubaneswar Rourkela Cup, and they said he gives 100 per cent on the field.
“If I play well, no one can stop me from joining the Indian squad for the 2023 FIFA World Cup Bhubaneswar and Rourkela,” Sumit said on Saturday.
“I always think about giving 100 percent when I hit the ground running. I am always competing with myself and I think I have to be better than I was yesterday. My duty is to do the hard work and the selection depends entirely on the coach and the selectors,” Sumit said.
He added, “The plus point of my game is that I can play in almost every position. I play as a midfielder, but sometimes I get too deep as a defender. I have no problem playing in any position in the team.”
Sumit also gave an insight into the Indian national team’s World Cup preparations.
“Our practice has been going really well and we just played four games in the 2022-23 Hockey Pro League. We played good hockey in all four games, so our preparations are on the right track.”
He said, “I remember the 2018 World Cup in Bhubaneswar when we lost in the quarter-finals and every time I come back to Bhubaneswar, it reminds me of the loss. Our team’s goal is to finish on the podium in the 2023 World Cup.”
Coming from a small village in Haryana, Sumit faced a lot of hardships in his childhood. However, this did not affect his resilience and his dream of playing for the Indian men’s hockey team.
Sumit said, “Since childhood, I aimed to play for the Indian men’s hockey team. However, my family background was not good and then my village coach supported me. My father used to get sick when I was a child and my brother used to work to support the family.”
“There were days when I substituted for my brother in Al-Dhabaha, I worked there to support my family and also practice hockey. The owners were kind enough to support me with petty cash whenever I had to travel to play matches.”
Sumit added, “Winning a medal at the Tokyo Olympics was a very proud moment for me and the people of the country. When I came back after winning the bronze medal, the whole village was behind me and at that moment I was missing my mother (she died in 2020). She was with me when I came home after winning the World Cup.” Men’s Junior FIH Hockey in 2016 and I missed it when the whole village was celebrating my success in the Tokyo Olympics.”
Speaking about the upcoming weeks leading up to the World Cup, Sumit said the tour of Australia will be a great learning experience for the Indian men’s team. “The tour of Australia is really important before the World Cup. Australia is a really strong team, we will get good competition from them and it will be a confidence booster for us to play against such a strong team before the big tournament.”
“We will learn a lot from playing against Australia and our team will try to implement the plans we have made for the World Cup during this series. The next round will really help us prepare for the huge event,” he added.
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