Hardik Singh broke into the national scene as a talented midfielder in 2018 at the Asian Men’s Champions Trophy as India went on to win the tournament. Five years later, he’s won an Olympic bronze medal, a Commonwealth Games silver medal and been a two-time Asian Champions Trophy winner – the most recent of which came in August this year.
Hockey runs in his blood. His grandfather is a former hockey coach and father a former international player. His aunt Rajbir Kaur is a legendary figure in Indian women’s hockey history while his uncle Gurmail Singh is an Olympic gold medallist.
During this career thus far, Hardik has also finished third in the Asian Champions Trophy but in his own words, the striker-turned-defensive midfielder isn’t someone who is happy with a silver or a bronze.
The 25-year-old wants to be part of gold-winning teams and his biggest goal is to win an Olympic gold.
Currently, in China where he’s pursuing Asiad glory, Hardik spoke to News18 Sports in an exclusive chat ahead of his departure:-
Excerpts
You come from a family of hockey stars. Were you always inclined towards playing hockey?
In my family, everybody played hockey – grandfather, father, uncle, aunt. So I was quite inspired by them, you can say my dad inspired me (to take up hockey). When I started playing hockey, everybody used to say how good my dad was. So, this was also in my mind that I fulfil his dream of playing in the Indian team one day. Then my aunt Rajbir Kaur was the captain of the women’s team for so many years. They are the reasons why I took up hockey.
The role of a midfielder is quite crucial and comes with a big responsibility. What prompted you to pick this position?
During my academy days, I used to play as a striker. When I started playing at the junior level under coach Harendra Singh, he advised me to play defensive midfielder (DMF). You can say he changed my position. He told me there are plenty of strikers in the junior team and we need a DMF so you try for it. After that, I played in the junior (in that position). Then there was a tour of Australia with the A team there also I played as DMF with Harjeet Singh (captain of Indian junior team that won 2016 World Cup). The same was the case in U-23. So yeah, my journey as a DMF began with the junior circuit.
Did you find the switch to DMF challenging?
I started playing for India in the Asian Champions Trophy (2018) and there I played as DMF. At first, I didn’t find it hard or took it as a challenge. But a few tournaments after that came as a reality check. When you play against Australia and Germany, you learn a lot – they have world-class DMFs. Plus there are a lot of players in our team who were DMFs. I keep talking to them a lot about different match situations and how to tackle them. If I am unable to find a solution to a problem myself, I have teammates to lean on for guidance.
Hardik, at a young age you been part of major victories with the Indian team. What keeps you motivated?
My goal from the beginning was to be part of an Indian team that has won an Olympic gold. It’s my goal. I haven’t achieved that but we are trying our best to reach it. When we went to the Olympics (Tokyo), I was just 22. A lot of work needs to be done. My immediate aim is to be part of teams that win gold, I don’t want to finish second or third. Just want to win gold with the Indian team. Every day I think that this team can win an Olympic gold.
Indian team’s new coach Craig Fulton has brought with himself a different philosophy: Defend to attack. What’s your impression of him so far?
Our previous coach (Graham Reid) was with us for nearly four years. Keeping aside all his qualities, his mindset was that of Australians – attack, attack, attack. Our current coach is tactically quite good. We are working on different scenarios like if we are winning or trailing by a goal, what should be our tactic? How should we be playing during the last few seconds of a match? Things like that. The new coach has brought European hockey with himself. It’s suiting our hockey. From an attacking mindset, we have now switched to controlling the tempo of the game.
2023 Hockey World Cup was disappointing for the Indian team. It was a heartbreak for your too because of an injury during a pool game. Can you talk about that phase?
It’s part of an athlete’s life. It was actually a dark phase, I was waiting for this for four years. I was mentally preparing myself to give 100 per cent during the World Cup which was going to be played in India. I had 7-8 days to get to full fitness but going through that rehab phase was a hard task in itself. I was having doubts like what if don’t recover? The moment, I got injured during the match, I knew then ke nahi hoga ab (I won’t be able to continue). You know how bad is it. Still I was fully committed to my rehab for those 7-8 days.
Coaching staff, teammates – everyone was very supportive. They used to visit me and console me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to recover for the quarterfinals. You learn a lot through bad experiences. For nearly one-and-a-half month I kept regretting – I wasn’t able to play the match itself. Yeah, it was a dark phase but part of life. We move on.
How is the team approaching the Asian Games?
When you play against a low-ranked team, you may be tempted to relax a bit. But we always play as per our standards. We will take one game at a time – be it China, Japan or Pakistan. We have divided this tournament in three phases: First phase is dealing with relatively easier challenges, 2nd is dealing with Japan and Pakistan and third phase is the final.
First phase involves bettering ourselves, we have to be our best in the second and for final phase we have to give it all. We have to stick to our strengths.
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