FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup: Meet Vishnukanth Singh – India’s midfield metronome

Vishnukanth Singh was a bundle of nerves before stepping on to Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium. And you can understand why.

Just 19, Singh was about to play against the likes of Australian legends Eddie Ockenden and Aran Zalewski – both veterans boasting a combined 600+ international appearances.

Though he had made his debut for the Indian men’s national team a year ago at the 2022 Asia Cup, it was a second string team at best, featuring none of the players who had won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. For all sense and purposes, he was about to face his biggest challenge in his nascent career.

Even as he was freaking out at the prospect of playing the mighty Australians in front of a packed 20,000+ capacity stadium, Singh had captain Harmanpreet Singh put an arm around his shoulder and ease his nerves.

“I was scared before my first match because it was Australia against us,” Singh told Scroll. “I had already made my senior team debut with the A team at the 2022 Asia Cup. But I was playing with the main senior team for the first time and I was feeling nervous because of the pressure.

“But Harmanpreet bhai helped me relax and told...

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