Our focus on sealing Olympic Qualification, says Manpreet Singh

Indian hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh on Thursday said next three months are critical for the team and whatever they are doing is with focus on sealing Olympic Qualification.

"The next three months are critical for us and whatever we are doing is with focus on sealing our Olympic Qualification in November," Hockey India quoted Manpreet Singh as saying.

Manpreet who is attending a national camp at the Bengaluru praised current coach Graham Reid and his understanding of the game.

"The good thing working under Graham Reid is that he has closely followed India's performance over the years and he understands our game well so in that sense he isn't changing our style and continues to reinforce that our attack and counter-attacks are our biggest strengths but the focus of our training is to ensure we are defending and finishing well with continued emphasis on speed and fitness," Manpreet said.

Manpreet stated that midfielder Chinglensana Singh, forward Lalit Upadhyay, and Sumit missed the camp due to their injury and hopes that they will be back in the squad for the Olympic Qualifiers.

"These players are missed in the team and we are hopeful they will be fully fit by the Olympic Qualifiers. But I believe we have good players in the core group with International experience who can step up and show their worth for a place in the team by giving their 100 per cent in the Camp," Manpreet said.

The 27-year-old said that their priority is to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games but they do not want to come under pressure and worried about the opponent.

"Our main priority right now is to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games but at the same time, we don't want to come under pressure and be worried about who our opponent is going to be. Our focus right now is to work on our shortcomings and improve collectively as a team," he concluded.