Bengaluru: Experienced midfielder Nikki Pradhan, who has experience of over 100 matches for playing with the Indian Women’s Hockey team said that the time she spent off the field during the pandemic has helped her to gain perspective of the game. This break gave her time to discover on how to replenish her career stats keeping an eye on India’s international competitions.
This break time gave her time to analyse her mistakes as she says, “Sometimes when we are playing tournament after tournament, we don’t have enough time to take a moment to think about a few aspects of our game. I thought the break came at the right time for me as I just crossed the 100-match milestone. While I stayed away from the pitch, I got a chance to think about the kind of mistakes I made in my preparation for matches in my first 100 matches and how I can rectify them going forward,”.
Pradhan added that SAI and Hockey India are providing their best-in-class facilities to help the players boost their game.”It’s been great getting back into the groove since August. All of us have understood how much we love the sport and how big an honour it is to play for India on a regular basis. The sudden boost of enthusiasm has certainly helped all of us to improve with every sports activities session. We are very thankful to Hockey India and SAI for ensuring all the procedures are in place before we started our practice for the Olympics. I am very happy with the way my game is shaping up so far,” she said.
Pradhan anticipates that team India will need a considerable number of matches against some top teams before the Olympics.”We have given everything we have in the last four years to become a better side and now we are confident of taking on any side in the world. If we play to our potential, we will certainly make history in Tokyo,” said Pradhan before signing off.
