Paris Olympics hockey: Stern New Zealand test awaits India as it aims to begin campaign with a win

Backed by good preparation and acclimatisation, the Indian hockey team is calmly approaching its opening match against New Zealand with an intention to improve the colour of its Tokyo bronze medal in the Paris Olympics at the historic Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in Paris on July 27.

Following a series of matches against top teams in the FIH Pro League, preparatory camps in Bengaluru and Europe, the Harmanpreet Singh-led side — supported by mental trainer Paddy Upton and adventurer Mike Horn, who were part of the support staff under coach Gary Kirsten and contributed to the Indian cricket team’s 2011 World Cup triumph — was down to fine-tune its game behind closed doors on the eve of the crucial encounter.

India will aim to begin with a win and get some momentum against New Zealand. “Our focus is to improve match by match. We are fully ready for tomorrow’s game. We have analysed them well. We have worked on minor fine-tuning today,” Harmanpreet told The Hindu.

“We came here on July 20. So, we had almost one week (to acclimatise). The ground is good. We had three good matches in Holland. We are looking forward to playing well.”

The sessions with Upton have helped the players calm their nerves prior to the big event. “We are relaxed. You need to be mentally calm and physically fit. We have worked on it. I think it will definitely help us in this tournament. All of us know what their target is and what they have to do.”

Harmanpreet was delighted to be playing at the celebrated ground, the only venue of the 1924 Olympics to be used for the Games after a century and wanted to make it more memorable for Team India.

“I saw it (the fact) yesterday. It is a good opportunity that after 100 years it is happening here again. We should win it and take the gold medal and make it memorable.”

The Indian team, which will meet Argentina (July 29), Ireland (July 30), Belgium (August 1), Australia (August 2) in its other Pool-B engagements, chose to skip the opening ceremony as it wanted to focus on its first match.