Having been in the national camp for over four months now amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Lalit feels the core group has improved in fitness levels especially in comparison to when they began the camp in August.
Forward Lalit Upadhyay believes the Indian men's hockey team have improved their performance by leaps and bounds in the recent years, especially when it comes to putting up a fight in pressure situations and not giving up.
"If I look back at how we played then in 2014 and how we play now as a team, I feel we have come a long way and have grown from strength-to-strength. We don't choke in tense moments anymore and we have learnt to put up a fight-back if required," Lalit said.
"Our performance particularly in the last two years have been note-worthy, having achieved good success rate against top teams like Belgium, Netherlands and Australia," he added.
Having been in the national camp for over four months now amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Lalit feels the core group has improved in fitness levels especially in comparison to when they began the camp in August.
He said, "While living in a bio-secure environment, without being allowed to go out of campus, for over four months has been extremely challenging, I feel this long camp has certainly helped us achieve good fitness levels and hit the same match-fitness and speed we were at during the start of the year when we played the FIH Hockey Pro League."
"We are all hopeful that we will get to play a few international matches before we compete in important tournaments like the Asian Champions Trophy where we defend the title," he added.
