CHENNAI: Ramandeep Singh’s long comeback trail to international hockey is finally over. During a Champions Trophy match against Pakistan in 2018, he had torn a ligament and meniscus near the right knee. Thousands of hours of lying in hospital beds and painful hours of rest and recuperation finally came to a conclusion when he featured at the ‘A’ Division Nationals in Gwalior in February.
That pain of missing the 2018 World Cup and other assignments with the Indian team is still very evident when he speaks. Heck, he even remembers the number of days he was out. “I was injured for 329 days... 11 months out I think.” That’s why he was so keen on wearing the India jersey again. He spoke of that desire during the Nationals and it’s something new coach Graham Reid has obliged.
Ramandeep’s inclusion is the one substantial piece of news in the squad for the upcoming pre-Olympic qualifiers to be held in Bhubaneswar early next month. “It’s good to be back in the team,” the forward told this newspaper. “I worked really hard when I was injured and it has paid off. I was given a different training session and schedule and I worked on them. It helped me in making a comeback.”
Ramandeep couldn’t have timed his comeback better because his trait is unique in the team. Akashdeep Singh creates, Mandeep Singh is very much a hit and miss striker while Simranjit Singh is still a greenhorn at this level. What the 26-year-old brings to the table is his off-the-ball intelligence and ability to create space inside the D.
It’s something Reid spoke about. “The Australian tour made us very aware of the level we need to play at to compete with the best teams of the world and we need to aim for that each time we train and we play. We are spending a lot of time at the moment on our circle entries, our finishing, tight marking and tackling and we want to see improvements in these areas,” he was quoted as saying in a press release issued by Hockey India on Tuesday.
Ramandeep, in fact, is one of four players in the side who did not play the World Cup. The highly-rated Vivek Sagar Prasad, Gursahibjit Singh and Gurinder Singh figure at the expense of Kothajit Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Dilpreet Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay.
One area that Reid hasn’t changed is the identity of the team’s leader. Manpreet Singh will continue to wear the armband and the midfielder says the team structure will stay the same under the Australian. “There’s nothing new to adjust to apart from having a new coach,” he told this daily. “The team structure remains the same.”
Considering India has been accused of losing structural integrity in tight games, Reid’s main challenge at the Series Finals — apart from delivering the title — is to arrest this proclivity.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Krishan Pathak.
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra (VC), Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Gurinder Singh.
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh (C), Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma.
Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Simranjit Singh.