Bengaluru: Indian women’s hockey forward Sharmila Devi has got a satisfactory start to her international career. While playing against the USA in the first-leg of FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers, the 19-year old scored India’s second goal. Team India beat USA 5-1 in that match in November last year. She finds her extremely lucky to play in the era of captain Rani Rampal and forward Vandana Katariya.
“I am really happy about the way I have started my international career. Being part of the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers was simply magical. But the best thing is that I am playing alongside experienced campaigners such as Rani and Vandana. I am very fortunate to be playing in the same era as them. I have observed them closely during practice and the way they prepare for big games. My learnings from the way they conduct themselves on and off the pitch will certainly help me in the rest of my career,” said the forward who had played nine matches for team India till date.
Devi aims to book a spot in the Indian Olympic team and said, “I feel I have made great progress in my hockey career so far. My game is shaping up well. I have experience of playing in big competitions as well. Now, I am very determined to find a place in the Indian Olympic team and contribute to the team’s success in the quadrennial event. My biggest dream is to play in the Olympics and it will be great if I can play the biggest tournament in our sport so early in my career,”
After the pandemic, Devi has been more enthusiastic to play the game of hockey as it has opened up a different perspective.
“The long break from the pitch has certainly put a lot of things in perspective for us. We had a lot of time to analyze our games and think about how we can get better. I have been even more enthusiastic about playing hockey after returning to the pitch for sports activities in August. I realized how much I missed the sport. We are very grateful to Hockey India and SAI for thinking ahead and putting all the procedures in place so that we can carry out our preparations for the Olympics with a lot of time in our hands,” said Devi before signing off.
