Indian hockey forward Akashdeep nominated for FIH Rising Player of the Year award, looks forward to HIL

Akashdeep (background)

Akashdeep Singh has reason to feel good about his hockey prowess – the 21 year-old is among five players nominated for the FIH Rising Player of the Year Award. The nippy forward will compete against Germany’s Christopher Ruhr, Australia’s Blake Govers, Ireland’s Shane O'Donoghue and Canada’s Sukhi Panesar.

He is excited about being nominated for the second consecutive year. “It feels good to be nominated again. Last year, I was also nominated with Christopher Ruhr and three others but Argentina’s Gonzalo Peillat won the award. I think the results would be announced by January-end,” says the soft spoken forward.

The Indian hockey ace has enhanced his profile as a promising player who can be relied upon to score goals. It came as no surprise when Akashdeep became the costliest Indian player of the 2016 Coal India Hockey India League, being bought for a whopping $84,000 by Uttar Pradesh Wizards.

How does it feel playing for a new franchise after turning out for the Delhi Waveriders for the last three years?

“I learnt a lot playing alongside guys like Simon Child, Andy Hayward, Sardar Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Matthew Gohdes, Oscar Deecke. It was a great experience turning out for the Delhi side. I’m really keyed up to play for the UP Wizards.”

“I look to enhance my learning playing alongside guys like Jamie Dwyer and Tobias Hauke. Being the costliest Indian player means there is a lot of responsibility on my shoulders to live up to the expectations of everyone,” he says.

Akashdeep will link up with the Uttar Pradesh Wizards side for the preparatory camp in Lucknow on January 10. The head coach of the UP outfit is yet to be announced, and earlier head coach Roelant Oltmans has opted out of a coaching role for the 2016 HIL.

He feels the Indian forwardline have plenty of room for improvement. “We need to create more penalty corners and also improve our scoring chances from field play.”