Good coordination one of the key factors for our recent success': Gurinder
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Defender Gurinder Singh has attributed the Indian men's hockey team's success on recent tours to good coordination among the players. India remained unbeaten during their tour of Europe in March where they played the likes of Germany and Belgium and then registered only one loss in Argentina in April.
Gurinder said coordination among players is one aspect that the team has always worked on, and it paid dividends in the matches against the top sides.
"One of the things that we have always focused on is good coordination on the field. Skill is important, but if there is no coordination between players then the skill of players will not be utilized properly," Gurinder was quoted as saying in a Hockey Indian release.
"We coordinated very well during our tours of Europe and Argentina. We didn't hesitate while passing the ball as the players were moving well on the pitch. This is a very good sign for us and the coordination we had definitely helped us achieve good results in our matches this year," he added.
The 26-year-old, who has played 58 matches for the national side, feels the team needs to build on its good performance, adding that the side is now focussed on fine-tuning a few techniques ahead of the all-important Tokyo Olympics. "Doing well against Germany, Great Britain, and Argentina has given us a lot of confidence, but we have to build on our performances and become fully prepared for the challenge at the Olympics later this year." "All of us are confident about our games ahead of the Olympics. However, there is always room for improvement and therefore we are fine-tuning a few aspects of our games at the moment.
Gurinder feels the team has a good balance of youth and experience. "We have a fantastic balance between youth and experience on our side. I feel very fortunate to have senior players such as Harmanpreet Singh and Surender Kumar in our team."