Graham Reid instils winning mentality in every player, says Manpreet Singh

With an aim of preparing for the upcoming FIH Series Finals, the Indian men’s hockey team has departed for Australia for a short tour. The team will play two matches against the Australian national team and a couple of games against the Australia A side. Apart from that, the Manpreet Singh-led side will take on Western Australia Thundersticks club on May 8.

Manpreet is of the belief that confident body language is an area which the coach focuses on. The skipper also spoke about the experience of practising under the new coach in the last three weeks at Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre, Bengaluru.

“He instils winning mentality in every player and confident body language has also been an area of focus apart from game-specific tactics over the past three weeks of training under Graham Reid," said Manpreet on the eve of the team's departure to Australia, reported Hockey India.

The Indian team had to bow out of the quarter-final stage of the World Cup last year and in the next event they lost the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup to South Korea in the penalty shootout. The 26-year-old midfielder talked about Reid reminding the players about the importance of a team man in a sport like hockey. 

"The new Chief Coach constantly reminds us why a team player holds more value to him than an individual player with excellent skill set,” the skipper explained.